Hello and welcome to our December newsletter,
This newsletter will update you on all things Keep Dancing.
Your continued support choosing to keep dancing with us every week is greatly appreciated. Should you ever have feedback about a piece of music or particular dance please always do get in touch.
In this month’s newsletter:
- Keeping Dancing December
- Class Updates for 2025
- Kickstart your New Year
- West Midlands Fire Service Safe and Well Checks
- Keeping in Contact
- Wish You Were Here
- Resources for Carers
- Find More Local Activities to Keep You Active
- Mental Health Support
- EasyFundraising
- Read Our Blog: 5 Effective Benefits of Dancing Together at Christmas
- Find Out What Dances You Will Be Learning in January 2025
Keep Dancing December
Keep Dancing in December was filled with festive cheer, elves and Rock N Roll! 💃
Dancing a Rock and Roll Waltz amazingly choreographed by Faye O’Connor got us in a fun and jolly mood this December! We danced our socks of to ‘Rock n roll is here to stay’ by Danny and the Juniors, ‘A Christmas Twist’ by Si Cranstoun, ‘Rock’ n Roll Waltz’ and ‘White Christmas’ by Elvis Presley. To recap your December Playlist click here, and reminisce about the good times!
Keep Dancing December was the return of Elf Day in support of Alzheimer’s society and our dancers really enjoyed themsELVES! We have raised a whopping £411 which is amazing for such a great cause.
If you haven’t already take a look at our Elf Day blog featuring information about Alzheimer’s, how you can further support the cause and even some pictures of some cheeky elves.
Class Updates for 2025
As a reminder there are a few changes to Keep Dancing for Carers:
Keep Dancing for carers online will now run on a Tuesday 9:30 am-10:30 am
Keep Dancing for carers at Shenley Court will now run on a Tuesday 11 am- 12 pm
Follow the link here to book your place.
Kickstart Your New Year!
Are you ready to take on 2025?
Enter the new year feeling happy, healthy and hopeful. New beginnings can often feel daunting and many of us put too much pressure on ourselves to complete resolutions.
Here are 5 ways you can prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed by the New Year:
- Set Realistic Resolutions – break down tasks and avoid overcommitment
- Maintain Your Own Personal Boundaries – become aware of how much you take on
- Plan Ahead – prioritise joyful activities
- Practice Mindfulness – dance, breathing techniques and yoga
- Take Care of Yourself – practice self care, get enough sleep, drink enough water
As Keep Dancing regulars we know you know how important Dance is for your health and wellbeing. But why not take a refresh and read our Why should you start dancing in 2025 blog post.
West Midlands Fire Service – Safe and Well Checks
West Midlands Fire Service offer free home safety checks to anyone living in the area who is concerned about fire safety and eager to learn how to reduce their risk. A fire officer visits homes and gives advice about important issues including kitchen safety, smoking materials, electrical safety, escape plans and supply free smoke alarms here.
Keeping in Contact
To avoid missing out on emails and important updates, please ensure both admin@xpress-yourself.co.uk and hello@xpress-yourself.co.uk are marked as safe email address. Additionally, make sure to always check your spam – just make sure the email address of the sender is one of the above.
Just a reminder that admin@xpress-yourself.co.uk office hours are Monday 8am-2pm and Thursday 8am-2pm.
Please ensure that you let us know of any changes of contact or emergency contact details.
Wish you were here
Fancy reminiscing on summer trips and wonderful memories?
We love sharing our dancers wish you were here pictures of them striking a pose in front of a famous landmark or special place that has meant something to them this summer.
We’d love to see your photos! They will be shared on social media and in our monthly newsletter, providing a wonderful way for our new dancers to get to know our thriving community!
Here’s a photo of Betty Cowley at The Blue Mountains in Australia in summer 2024!
The Blue Mountains are located in New South Wales, Australia and are a stunning mountainous region known for their natural beauty, rich biodiversity, and cultural significance. The Blue Mountains National Park covers approximately 617,000 acres and is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its unique ecosystems and landscapes, including eucalypt forests and rare plant species
I wonder if Betty taught any Kangaroos the Quickstep or the Waltz! 🦘
Thank you Betty for sharing!
Don’t be shy! Xpress yourself today by uploading your photos to the comments below, sending them via Facebook Messenger, or emailing them to admin@xpress-yourself.co.uk
Resources for Carers
Here at Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC, we support carers. In addition to our carer classes on offer, we are also happy to provide resources to help support carers and hopefully make their responsibilities a little easier – we are more than happy to help!
We have compiled all our resources into one handy blog post for you!
There is information about support, activities for carers and information about Carers IF card. Click here to access the blog!
Don’t forget we have a FREE pre-recorded downloadable class for carers. A monthly half hour session for those unable to join us for our online or in-person carer classes, but don’t want to miss out on the dancing. After booking the class, you will receive a link via email to download the video. The link will expire within 7 days. Here at Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC we support carers. If you feel like you need additional support or advice we can make a referral to Birmingham Carers Hub. Please do just get in touch with us, we are happy to help.
Find More Local Activities to Keep you Active
Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC understands the importance of Dance to keep your mind and body active and healthy, but joining other local activities can boost community spirit and your own wellbeing.
We have collated activities for you to join in Acocks Green area and West Bromwich area.
If you know of any other activities in your local area that you think your Keep Dancing friends will enjoy, please send the information to admin@xpress-yourself.co.uk. and we can get them into a blog post of the New Year!
Mental Health Support
If you need help for a mental health crisis or emergency, you should get immediate expert advice and assessment.
It’s important to know that support services are available for you to access, whatever you’re going through. You can get urgent Mental Health Support from 111 online or by calling 111 and selecting the mental health option. Alternatively you can ask for an urgent GP appointment.
111 will tell you the right place to get help. You may be able to speak to a trained mental health professional over the phone.
A GP can advise you about helpful treatments and also help you access mental health services. You may be able to refer yourself to some services.
Free listening services
These services offer confidential support from trained volunteers. You can talk about anything that’s troubling you, no matter how difficult:
- Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans, or email: jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours
- Text “SHOUT” to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line,
EasyFundraising
Support us when you shop online
You will be unsurprised to hear that room hire for many of our groups has recently increased.
We are keen to not increase our prices for Keep Dancing classes but we do ask for your support. If you are partial to a little bit of online shopping you can support Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC every time you shop. We are now registered with easyfundraising, which means you can help us for FREE. Over 4,000 shops and sites will donate to us when you use easyfundraising to shop with them – at no extra cost to yourself!
All you need to do is sign up and remember to use easyfundraising whenever you shop online. It’s easy and completely FREE! These donations really will mount up and ensure that we can continue to run classes where you book by the week, and not by the month, with no price increase so please sign up to support here So far £208.75 has been raised. This money will be used towards a monthly hall hire at one of our nine venues. Thank you to everyone who has signed up to support us and have been online shopping with us in mind, your support is greatly appreciated.
Read Our Blog: 5 Effective Benefits of Dancing Together at Christmas
Decembers blog was a nod to the festive period as we gave you benefits of dancing together at Christmas to support your mental, social and physical wellbeing.
Take a read here, and let us know in the comments if you danced together over the Christmas period!
January 2025 Dances
In 2025 you will be learning a Disco dance to Le Freak by Chic choreographed by Faye Hadley and a Quickstep to Upside Down by Paloma Faith choreographed by Faye OConnor.
Keep Dancing Greatest Hits will be revisiting the Hand Jive – Rock n roll is here to stay, a Quickstep to Lets face the music and dance and an Argentine Tango to Welcome to Burlesque.
We hope you’re excited to Dance your way into the New Year as we are !
As the year has come to a close, we have been so grateful for your continued support. Whether that be continuing to interact with our Facebook page, leaving us reviews, telling your friends about our classes and booking onto our Keep Dancing classes. Your support is truly appreciated and we hope to continue keep dancing into the future.
If you have the time please ;Leave us a Facebook Review here
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel here
Follow us on Instagram @xpre55your5elfdance
Increasing our social following will certainly help us maintain our small business in 2025.
Thank you so much!
We love to boogie!
The Xpress-Yourself Team
