Xpress Yourself Dance CIC February 2025 Newsletter!
Hello and welcome to our February 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 months Newsletter:
- Keep Dancing February
- Class Updates
- In Memory of Anne Angell
- Paying by Cheque Updates
- Heart Month
- Free Public Transport
- Mental Health Support
- Keeping In touch
- Wish You Were Here – Callout
- Resources for Carers
- Keep Active – activities near you
- Dates for your diary
- EasyFundraising
- Benefits of Tap Dancing for your Physical and Mental health
- March’s Keep Dancing Dances
Keep Dancing February
Keep Dancing in February was all about dusting off our tap shoes, and shuffling our stuff!👯♀️
In February we danced a tap dance to ‘That Man’ choreographed by Faye Hadley and a Disco Dance to ‘More than a woman’ Choreographed by Faye O’Connor.
Keep Dancing February we shared the love with our dancing friends 💗
John Travolta made Disco Dancing famous and Keep Dancing Sheldon are very proud to have their own Disco Dancing John!
Keep Dancing Quinton, Smoothly smiling and swaying.
Fancy having a boogie at home to Keep Dancing February’s tunes? Click here to access the playlist!
Class Updates
As a reminder there were a few changes to Keep Dancing for Carers 2025:
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.
From the 6th of February onwards Keep Dancing Marston Green will run at the slightly earlier time of 13:10-14:10, due to a change in bus timetable.
In Memory of Anne Angell
This month, with the permission of the family, we would like to pay tribute to Anne Angell, a member of Keep Dancing Marston Green since January 2023. Sadly, Anne passed away in February 2025, and we wish to extend our heartfelt condolences to her husband, Michael, her family and friends.
Anne was born on the 4th October 1952 in Rawcliffe Yorkshire. She has 3 children Melanie, Stephen and Christopher with 6 grand children Oliver, Harvey, Harry, Finley, Callum and Elliott. Anne loved her dancing with you and made friends with a lot of people at the dance class. Depending on when your news letter goes out her funeral is/was at Yardley Crematorium on March 12th at 12.15.
Keep Dancing Marston Green all shared that they thought she was a lovely woman and particular tributes paid to Anne from her fellow dancers include:
‘Anne was such a positive woman . She did everything she wanted to do.’
Barb
‘I never heard her complain.’
Chris
‘Always dressed beautifully with a smile on her face, always immaculate.’
Anne and Chris
‘We used to have laugh together.’
Pat
‘Anne fitted into our group as soon as she joined. She was always happy when dancing.’ Shirl
Faye Hadley describes Anne as a delightful character who always had a joke to share. Everyone was always happy to see Anne, as she brought such a lively and joyful energy to the group.
Anne was remembered in class on Thursday 20th February with a moment of silence, and the “Catch a Falling Star” of that session was dedicated to her. May she now rest in peace.
Paying by Cheque Updates
We have a little update on how to pay by cheque.
If you choose to pay by cheque, please can you ensure that cheques are sent in the post to this address:
XPRESS YOURSELF
PO Box 18828
OLDBURY
B69 9HX
Cheques will not be accepted at the class.
When paying by cheque we please request:
- Cheques are made payable to Xpress-Yourself Dance CIC.
- You write the dates you wish to attend on the back of the cheque. Please note that once the cheque has been received the dates you have booked are not transferable.
- You write your address and telephone number on the back of the cheque.
- As you do not book online, we will also need to be informed of an emergency contact number for you.
Please note the envelope will need a stamp.
Thank you for your support,
National Heart Month
In the UK, someone dies from a heart or circulatory condition every 3 minutes,
February 2025 is National Heart Month, this year HeartUK want to educate people about cholestrol and adjusting peoples lifestyle for a healthy heart.
We all need some cholesterol in our blood to stay healthy, but too much can lead to serious health problems such as heart attacks and strokes. Cholesterol can clog up arteries and cause blood clots leading to a range of cardiovascular diseases. Cholesterol levels can be affected by lifestyle, diet, genetics and health conditions such as diabetes.
By getting a simple cholesterol test and making positive lifestyle changes, most people can keep their cholesterol levels healthy.
What lifestyle changes can you make to improve your Cholesterol?
- Exercise: The best cholesterol lowering exercises for older adults are brisk walking, swimming, dancing and yoga
- Diet: Foods for a healthy heart diet include oily fish, nuts especially almonds and walnuts, beans, dark leafy greens especially kale and spinach. Check out HeartUK’s budget and heart friendly recipes here.
- Regular check ups with your GP can help you maintain a healthy heart.
If you want to find out more about Heart Month UK follow their website here
Free Public Transport
Do you want access to free public transport around the West Midlands? You can apply for an older person’s travel pass, allowing you to travel for free during off peak hours.
The pass will allow you to access the following, free of charge:
- Bus travel between 9.30am – 11.59pm, Monday to Friday
- Bus travel all day on weekends and public holidays
- Trains in the Blue Zone from 9.30am – 11.59pm
- Trams between 9.30am and the last service of the day
If you want to travel before 9.30am, simply show your pass and pay just £1.50 for a single fare. Alternatively, you can purchase a pre 9.30am add-on.
Those over the age of 66 and living in the West Midlands can apply for a pass. Simply click here to apply online, or you can print the form and send it in the post here.
For more information, see the Transport for West Midlands webpage.
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,
Keeping in Touch
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 last years trips and wonderful memories?
You may have seen our segment in previous newsletters ‘Wish You Were Here’ where we highlight one of our dancers and a place they have visited 🌍
We need your help to give us the next set of travel photos!
Perhaps you have done a pirouette in Paris, a shuffle in Scotland or even taken a bow in Birmingham. Wherever you have been we would love to see!
Please send in your travel photos to admin@xpress-yourself.co.uk ✈️
We can’t wait to see where you’ve been!
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 handy blog post!
Dates for your diary
March:
Keep Dancing Harborne will not run on Tuesday 25th March
April:
Keep Dancing Garretts Green will not run on Monday 21st April
Keep Dancing Acocks Green will not run on Monday 21st April
Keep Dancing Sutton Coldfield will not run on Monday 21st April
Keep Dancing Aldridge will not run on Monday 21st April
Keep Dancing for carers Online will not run on Tuesday 22nd April
Keep Dancing for carers Shenley court Hall will not run on Tuesday 15th April and Tuesday 22nd April
Keep Dancing Shirley will not run on Tuesday 22nd April
Keep Dancing Bentley Heath will not run on Thursday 24th April
Keep Dancing Marston Green will not run on Thursday 24th April
Keep Dancing Quinton will not run on Thursday 17th April
Keep Dancing Sheldon will not run on Thursday 17th April
Keep Dancing Moseley will not run on Thursday 17th April
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 Tap Dancing for your Physical and Mental Health
Februarys blog was a nod to our Tap Dance Routine as we gave you 5 benefits of Tap Dancing for your Physical and Mental health.
Take a read here, and let us know in the comments if you felt the Benefits from February’s Tap Dancing 👯♀️
March 2025 Dances
In March 2025 you will be learning a Bollywood Dance Routine to London Thumakda choreographed by Faye O’Connor and a Tap Dance to Popular from Wicked also choreographed by Faye O’Connor.
Keep Dancing Greatest Hits will be dancing to 1. Let’s GO Crazy – Prince 2. Frankie – Sister Sledge 3. Caro Emerlad – That Man – TAP Dance 4.- Sophie Ellis Bexter – Freedom of the night- DISCO DANCE 5.Bonfire Heart
We hope you’re excited to Dance your way into March as we are !
We are 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
