A week in Edinburgh October 4 - 11

From London we to Edinburgh with the GOLDS to spend a week in residency with the mature age group Prime from Dance Base Scotland.

We had a perfect apartment in Old Town close to the Royal Mile and The Grassmarket where we were dancing. Well, perfect until during the weekend when we discovered we were also near a night club that went until three in the morning.

Never mind, the view was fantastic.

View of a building on the royal mile from the apartment.

 

Our first day was spent exploring the sites - the Scott Memorial, or Gothic Rocket as it is known.

On the Royal Mile we visited the highly over priced Mary King's Close.

The obligatory piper.

Next day we met up with our new Prime friends at Edinburgh Dance Base on the Grassmarket.

View of Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket. The weather continues to be nice. So lucky!

What a wonderful experience it was to meet up with such a warm and welcoming group. We hit it off together right from the start. There are only twelve in Prime and they are an auditioned semi-professional company. Dance Base also has two other mature age groups who do not perform, Gold and Platinum.

We learnt one of Prime's dances, Rollin' in the Deep, an Adele song, which was great fun. We taught them the Click Song and were very impressed with how quickly they picked it up.

Elisabetta and Liz were there to guide us all.

We worked together with Prime for four days doing various dancing activities, including a bit of creative chaos.

At lunch time some of us liked to eat at the Kick Ass Cafe. Here's Jean kicking a bit of ass.

Rosie from Prime, Elisabetta, David and Jean inside Kick Ass.

By Friday we were ready to do a little collective concert together to an audience in the studio. The audience was made up of other dances from Dance Bace and some family. First up, Click Song.

Followed by the dance choreographed together.

We finished up Rollin' in the Deep together.

Prime's artistic director Morag and our Liz gave a little talk.

Also Elisabetta.

That evening we performed in a concert with Prime and with the Scottish Ballet Elders' Company, an auditioned group of 14 from Glasgow. We danced Air Kiss and Pop Art. (Quite dark for photos on stage.)

The Scottish Ballet Elders' Company's dance, Words Unspoken, was inspired by a Dylan Thomas quote.

Prime performing their marvellous dance Tarn.

Taking a bow with Prime.

Then, a group photo, a last drink and a fond farewell to our lovely new Scottish friends and the wonderful Elisabetta.