Welcome to your Retreat
What is a Blues Retreat?
Well, for us, it is a place where people gather for a wide variety of
reasons, but above all to share in their love of a common interest.
A place where you are free to enjoy as much or as little that is on offer.
A place to make new friends, learn new skills, to share new experiences
and to immerse yourself completely in all that is special about our mutual
love of dance.
As our guests, we aim to ensure you feel welcomed, encouraged and
valued.
We are on hand throughout your stay to help with anything that you may
need. Nothing is too much trouble so please – just say if there is anything
we can do to improve your stay with us.
As guests of the Rendezvous Hotel, you have full access to the spa
facilities too, so don’t forget your swim kit!
We look forward to sharing a fabulous weekend with you
Sara and the Blues Nites Team
Skipton Blues Retreat
Programme
We invite you to check-in for your weekend stay from 4pm.
When you arrive, head to the reception desk and you’ll be
greeted by Lindsay or one of her lovely team.
There is on-site parking to the front, side and rear of the hotel.
Please park considerately.
4:30pm – 6pm – Meet ‘n’ Mingle
After you’ve settled in, do come and join us in the bar for our now
legendary ‘Meet ‘n’ Mingle’ session.
Our Mission Statement for this event is:
Although you may arrive not knowing many – you will leave with
a whole host of new friends. We are passionate that everybody
should feel valued and included throughout the entire weekend.
6:30pm – 8pm – Dinner is served in the restaurant
The restaurant boasts a fabulous menu with choices to suit all
tastes. Three courses of the finest food – all served by fabulously
efficient and friendly staff.
(We will have asked in advance for any specific dietary
requirements and chef will have prepared for these)
No need to rush dinner – linger as long as you like. We’re here for
the whole weekend.
Feel free to sit with friends in the restaurant, but don’t worry if you
don’t know anyone well enough yet – we have large round
tables reserved for us, and everyone is welcome to sit at
whichever of these you would like. Meal times are often a place
where new friendships are made
Friday Evening Freestyle – 8pm til 2am
Our Friday Freestyle will kick off at 8pm in the stunningly beautiful
ballroom.
Our team of hand-picked DJs will blow your socks off with so
much great music that you won’t be able to resist dancing the
night away.
And just when you think things can’t get any better, we’ll take a
short break for a sweet treat and a coffee.
Then it is back to the dance-floor for more, more, more!
Saturday Schedule
8am – 10am – breakfast in the dining room.
A magnificent breakfast buffet to help yourself from. Cereals,
toast and all the freshly cooked bacon, eggs and trimmings you
can manage.
You’ll be asked at breakfast to select your choices from the set
menu for our Black Tie Banquet so that all the food can be
prepared fresh and we’ll be served all together in the Ball Room.
09:00 – 10:30 Blues Basics – with Sara & Debs
New-2-Blues & beyond (Ballroom)
In our opinion you can never get too much of a good thing –
and a good solid foundation of the basics is ALWAYS a good
thing! So whether this is the start of your Blues journey, or you
just want to make sure you haven’t picked up any bad
habits, this workshop will remind us all of good Blues practice.
10:45 – 12:15 The 3 E’s of Blues Workshop – With Rob & Sara
Accessible to all (Ballroom)
The 3 E’s – Entries, Exits and Energy
In this session we’ll explore a variety of ways to get into and out of
close-hold that will add interest and diversity to your dance.
Break out of the same old, same ol’ and add some spark!
We’ll also be exploring the energy in the music that we dance to.
Finding ways to let it guide and shape our dance. We would
argue that some of the best dances are those when you don’t
necessarily know what is going to happen, but you do have a
feel for when things will happen!
12:15 – 12.30 Tea/Coffee break.
Please note:
We don’t have lunch booked on Saturday as we have our big
banquet to look forward to in the evening.
If you do decide you are peckish, you can order a snack at the
bar, or across the road is Subway takeaway, or you could head
into Skipton and enjoy one of the coffee shops there. You could
even bring your own snacks with you if that is your preference.
12:30 – 14:00 A taste of Fox – with Tobias, Linnea & Catrin
Accessible to all (Side Room)
Building upon the success of our Blues/Fox exchange visits to
Sweden, we thought it would be a wonderful experience to
exchange a little with our Swedish friends in Skipton. Tobias,
Linnea and Catrin have kindly agreed to teach an introduction to
Fox class.
And if you find that Fox is your thing and you’d like more – then
do consider joining us for our next Blues/Fox exchange in Sweden
at the end of August.
12:30 – 14:00 An ABC of Blues – with Sara & Rob
Improvers plus level (Ballroom)
Action – Balance – Control
Moving beyond the basics and we start to explore the individual
responsibilities that both the lead and the follow bring to the
dance. How we are each individually responsible for action,
balance and control, and how when each partner masters their
role – the possibilities are infinite!
14:00 – 16:00 Delicious & Decadent Daytime Dancing
(Side Room)
In addition to our workshops, we will be offering some daytime
freestyle time on Saturday afternoon, in our side room.
This will finish at 4pm-ish to give everyone a chance to chill and
get ready for our Black Tie Banquet!
.
18:00 – 20:30 Black Tie Banquet in the Ballroom.
Please be aware, that we will be meeting in the bar at 6pm
prompt ahead of our Black Tie Banquet. This ensures that we will
all be seated at the same time as everyone will be served at the
same time - you really don’t want to be the person who keeps
everyone waiting…
Posh frocks and dinner jackets are the order of the day and lots of
photos will be taken to ensure you remember how goddam
fabulous you look!
After dinner we’ll retire back to the bar for coffee, and time for
more photos as the Ballroom is prepared for our all-night freestyle
extravaganza.
21:00 – 06:00ish See the Sunrise Freestyle
Saturday night is party night and a chance to dance right
through to dawn and make it into our famous Survivors Photo!
We open up this freestyle event to include lots of dancers who like
to join us for what is a really vibrant and buzzing evening.
Prepare to make lots more new dance friends!
We have two dance rooms for this part of the event. Our main
Ballroom will play a huge variety of beautiful Bluesiness while our
Side Room will alternate between music suitable for Funky/WCS,
Fox and Tango.
All of our top DJs will be in action during the course of the
evening – your only problem will be trying to decide which is your
favourite!
Sunday Schedule
08:00 – 10:00 Breakfast in the restaurant.
Again, an all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, with limitless tea,
coffee and happy cheerful people!
Leave a little room though, as we also have lunch to look forward
to!
10:00 – 12:00 Blues Accents Workshop – with Rob & Sara
(Ballroom)
Dance is a universal language, and with a certain amount of
structure and understanding, everyone can speak with each
other.
The music we dance to is diverse and exciting – but it is also
structured and controlled. Learning how to match movement to
music is the biggest fundamental of dance.
We can dance to timings, to breaks, to energy and to vocal
shape – and adding accents to our dance can create an extra
level of interest and understanding.
10:00 – 12:00 A taste of Tango – with Mark & Sylvia
(Side room)
Modern Blues is a dance that absorbs and incorporates aspects
of lots of other dances… Why not try a Taste of Tango and see
how it fits into your dance!
12:30 – 14:00 Lunch in the restaurant
A full and fabulous lunch which will set you up for the rest of the
day. And the calories don’t count as you’ll get to dance it all off
after…
14:00 – 17:30 Afternoon Delight Tea Dance
For those who are not staying with us for Sunday evening, this is
our fond farewell to you. An afternoon of lazy, hazy Sunday
dancing to send you on your merry way. For those of us staying til
Monday, this is our warm-up for Sunday evening!
17:30 – 19:00 Chill Time
For those who are staying with us on Sunday evening, we’ve built
in a bit of ‘down time’ in the schedule. Don’t forget that as hotel
guests, we do have access to the Spa facilities. (Not just at this
time, but throughout the weekend)
The bar is a fabulous place to sit and chill with new friends.
Skipton itself is not too far away and we are right by the canal if
you fancy a bit of a stroll. Or you might want to treat yourself to a
snooze!
19:00 – 20:00 Food, food, more glorious food!
Time for dinner in the restaurant again. A relaxed and quieter
affair, time to ponder the wonders of the universe and enjoy the
company of your fellow dancers.…
19:30 til midnight Mild & Mellow Bluesiness
Sara will be aiming for a mellow, soulful and musically expressive
session, with oozy, moody Blues most definitely on the menu.
Close
Of course we still have breakfast to look forward to on Monday,
and all that Skipton has to offer if you have the time to explore.
But for now, and until next time, we bid you farewell and safe
travel.