In early Sept, 50 RSCDS dancers not only from Europe but also Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the U.S.A had an amazing 10 day dancing holiday in Krasnodar and by the Black Sea, organized by Fiona Grant (Bristol) and llona Gumenyuk of the Kuban Scottish Dancers. We had teachers from the U.K and also New Zealand and San Francisco making it truly international and Scottish Measure provided the music. We spent two weekends in Krasnodar enabling the Russian dancers to join the classes and evening dancing.

On the first Sunday, after classes, we had an excursion to a Cossack restaurant in Krasnodar with lots of food accompanied by music and dancing and later in the day were guests of the Kuban Dancers and were treated to an amazing three hour display of song and dance by various groups of the region, all in beautiful costumes.

Monday saw us on our way for 4 days to the Black Sea to stay at the Yamal Hotel, overlooking the sea and set in the foothills of the beautiful Caucasus Mountains. It had a superb swimming pool and once again lots of lovely food. Whilst there we had two memorable trips, one to Kisilov Rock, a geological feature on the beach. To get there entailed quite a long walk, steep in places, through the forest and a ten-metre rock climb up from the beach, which was quite a challenge. The other trip was to a camp in the Caucasus, where we could walk in the woods, swim in the ponds and sample a Russian Bath. This was a group sauna with sheets provided and branches to beat each other, and needless to say lots of laughing could be heard. Our hosts provided us once again with an enormous barbecue and even cut the grass for us to dance out of doors. Lots of fun was had in the evenings with Fiona teaching us Scottish Quadrilles, Orkney and Shetland Reels and llona trying to teach us Russian Dances.

Friday on our return to Krasnodar we visited a Space Museum and another picnic lunch, which took two days to eat (I think the Russians think we need feeding up).

We finished our trip with a Highland Ball, which started with a Grand March piped in by one of the group. The local and international T.V stations came and interviewed Fiona, David Queen and llona, so everyone now knows about Scottish Dancing over there.

The hospitality shown to us by everyone in the hotels and the Kuban Dancers was excellent and the holiday was a truly wonderful experience with lots of food, good company and plenty of international dancing.