Dear everybody!

I wanted to thank all the people who have kindly contributed to the fund for the trip of members of the Kuban Scottish Dancers to the UK!

There was a group of 6 of us, 4 of which were sponsored by your generosity! It has been an extremely eventful summer for all of us, and especially for those, who were here for the first time.

The group stayed in London for a few days with Margaret Lugg, entertained by the dancers in the South East: Brian and Penny Fee, Margaret and Robert Harman, Gillian Goodwin, and Wendy and Christine from Brighton. We had a lovely trip around London, went to the London Eye, walked past the Houses of Parliament, watched the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and sailed under Tower Bridge. We were impressed by the unique London taxis and London traffic, and lunched at the Headquarters of the London Scottish Regiment. We spent a day in Brighton and stood across the Greenwich Meridian Line. At the end of the London experience we went to our first dance in the UK – The Tartan Jigsaw Ball, which was great fun and lots of new experience.

After London the whole group came to Bristol, where we stayed with Fiona Grant – our greatest friend. Without her inspiration, energy and determination none of us would have been able to share in this unforgettable experience of Scottish dancing, making friends with enthusiastic people, visiting all the places we have read and heard so much about. We explored Bristol in beautiful weather, walked along the twisty and winding streets and over the Clifton Suspension Bridge, went to the Bristol Cathedral and to the harbour and into an old pub in the centre where the pirates from Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” used to have their drinks. The following day we spent in Bath, enjoying the architecture of Royal Crescent, and the Abbey, and making our way among the hordes of tourists and university graduates with their relatives.

The following day we started on our way to the North. We were driving all the way to Edinburgh in a mini van – what an exciting journey we had! It was the first time driving a car on a motorway on a different side of the road, struggling to find our way at the roundabouts (we don’t have that many of them in Russia!) and keeping an eye on the speed cameras. One will never be able to describe our emotions when we saw sheep grazing on the green border hills under the unnaturally blue sky with the clouds hanging so low above your head – the picture which you will never find anywhere else in the world!

Finally, we found ourselves at the front door of Leslie and Peter Hastings’s house, which was our home for another few days. We had the most wonderful time in Edinburgh. The capital of Scotland greeted us exceptionally well – pipers on the streets, and Scottish accents which most of the group could hardly understand at that stage. On the first day, we followed the usual touristy route from Edinburgh Castle (where we spent over 2 hours) along the Royal Mile into the Palace of Holyroodhouse; doing Prince’s street souvenir shopping and exploring the New Town on the second day. Some of us even managed to see the Royal Yacht Britannia! One of the exciting outings was on Saturday, when all of us and our hosts accompanied by Fiona and Kate Williams went to Linlithgow Palace where we met up with our friend James Gray and Judith from Hungary. What an international crew we were!!! Added to our excitement was the chance to see a Scottish wedding that had just taken place in the palace, the piper leading the wedding party to the lovely tune of Mairi’s Wedding. And everybody will always remember a haggis dinner that we had that day.

Edinburgh was a final stopping point on our journey to the main destination in St. Andrews – the place that has been a target for so many Scottish Dancers all over the word in summer. It is almost impossible to describe the St. Andrews summer school experience in words – one can only feel it having been there! So, here we were, in St. Andrews at last! The summer school was a hectic week. Most of us were in the very advanced class with Lesley Martin from Aberdeen, who made us work hard and was really great in making our dancing so much better!!! As for the second class, men went to the Highland class with Pam Dignan (and were nearly crawling out after the class each day – exhausted, but happy!), and the girls went to the elegant Ladies’ Step class with Atsuko Clements. And in the afternoon we all tried more highland until we were invited to dance in the demonstration team – it meant that we had practice in the afternoon. John Wilkinson and Robert Mackay were an excellent team that united to polish our performance and make us feel great and confident when we were on stage in Younger Hall. We took an active part in the ceilidh on Friday and decided to bring a taste of Russia to St.Andrews, teaching people a slow Russian dance and then dancing a Russian Quadrille. Apart from classes and dance events, we were absorbed in the lively community of dancers at the St. Andrews summer school, went to lots of parties and even had our own Russian party one night. One of the major and unforgettable experiences that we had in St. Andrews is meeting all the dancers there from all over the world. What a wonderful world Scottish Country Dancers make! Having been in St. Andrews once, you would want to come back here over and over again.

On the way back we stayed in York with Helen and Malcolm Brown and Rita Eastwood. Ivan Rose joined us for a day tour of York which has been wonderfully planned by Malcolm! We went to Jorvik Centre, York Minster, walked along the old streets of York which seem to have taken us back in times to the era of Walter Scott heroes. It felt as if we were going to meet a knight in armour just behind that very corner!

And back to Heathrow… It was a little sad to say good bye to this wonderful island which welcomed us so warmly this summer. But we all knew that we were taking back a valuable treasure – the great experience and unforgettable impressions of the trip that would not have happened without all your help! Thank you so much!!!!

We are saying goodbye to Scotland now, and going back to Krasnodar to dance all through the winter, but we hope to say hello to lots of scottish dancers next year.

We would like to invite you to come and dance with us in the south of Russia in September 2005. We are planning another Scottish Country Dance Holiday.

If you would like more details please send us an email to:
ilona@dancetour.co.uk or fiona@dancetour.co.uk

Until then, happy dancing,
Ilona, Sasha, Olga, Anton, Larissa and Dima.