Fun afternoon at Building community together tea dance

Fun afternoon at Building community together tea dance – March 2023

A fun afternoon at Building community together tea dance was had by all who attended. Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC got everyone up dancing and having fun. Building Community Together Tea Dance in March 2023 ran at Acocks Green Baptist Church. As always it was an afternoon of dancing, singing, laughing and having great fun with friendly people.

Building Community Together is a partnership project run by Arts In The Yard, Birmingham PlayCare Network and Stockfield Community Association. Together they have delivered; fun days, tea dances Play in Parks sessions, Heritage sessions, sports sessions and a whole host of community events.  Find more about the project here

Xpress-Yourself Dance have been hosting the BCT tea dance since 2020 when the tea dances ran online during Covid and we all danced together from our living rooms and kitchens. Since the return of face to face tea dances, the BCT tea dance’s have been running at Acock’s Green Baptist Church and Blakesley Hall.

The Building Community Together tea dance have always been popular. Everyone always receives a warm welcome and are made to feel part of the community and often an opportunity to inform attendees about what other activities and events are happening locally. For the Building Community Tea dances no dance experience or partner is required. All of the dances are all taught step by step and the playlist is always different so you will always learn something new. Some tea dances have incorporated a theme like around the world and dances from the movies.

The Building Community Together tea dances have also done some time travelling taking people back to the 1940’s, 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. These tea dances in particular provided great opportunity for attendees to reminisce about dancing days gone by, the dance crazes of different times and listen to golden oldies. They just don’t make songs like they used to.

The tea dances often provide attendees with great opportunity to enjoy the chance to dance in a non judgemental environment, meet people with similar interests time to chat and socialise and laugh and laughing together. The BCT tea dances are always well catered for and people enjoy the delicious buffet of food.

In the March Building Community Together tea dance, participants enjoyed learning the Cowboy Macarena to Line Dance Party, and a line dance classic to Hillbilly Rock, HillBilly Roll. Some other favourite routines were a rock ‘n’ roll inspired routine to ‘Do you love me?’ by The Contours, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Waltz and also a routine with Foxtrot steps to Sweet Caroline. All the Building Community Together Tea dances conclude with a general knowledge quiz. A huge, congratulations to Christine who has claimed her winning quiz master title back.

It was a lovely afternoon. I really enjoyed the line dancing!

Tina Brown – Love

Xpress-Yourself Dance have been hosting tea dances since 2018. Xpress-Yourself Dance’s Tea Dances are non traditional in that you don’t have to have a partner and will be learning diverse dance styles. This means that everyone can come along and join in whether they have danced before or are a complete beginner. In previous Building Community Together Tea Dances we have even facilitated participants who prefer to remain seated.

Tea Dances are a great social activity to have fun with your friends or to meet new people in your local community. Often opportunities to dance socially are limited to birthday parties and weddings. The Tea Dances provide the opportunity to dance socially and also dress up and feel special.

Dancing in a social capacity can benefit you emotionally impacting your mood, happiness , and resilience.  Dancing together can create a shared experience that can bring you joy and help you feel more connected to other people and your local community. The

Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC run weekly Keep Dancing dance classes. Keep Dancing classes are suitable for older adults and run across the West Midlands, including a class that runs in Acock’s Green. Our Keep Dancing Acocks Green class is Free up until Dec 2023, thanks to generous funding from Yardley Neighbourhood Network Scheme. You will learn dances from around the world with no need for a partner. Find your nearest Keep Dancing class here

Find out about previous Building Community Tea Dances here.