Fund Raiser in Bramhall, posted by Meroe

Wednesday 18th May saw the girls at St Michael’s Church Hall in Bramhall, near Stockport, to dance at a fundraiser for the Gambian Schools Trust.

I decided to take the “scenic” route partly due to the fact that my in-built satnav was on the blink and for the first time in a long time, I got horrendously lost. But somehow I managed to fall through the door in time to get changed and ready for the first set.

We’d been invited to dance at St Michael’s by Olive Roskilly, who had seen us perform at the Chadkirk festival in 2010. The aim of the evening was to help raise money for a Gambian Schools charity.

Our first set was folk based and was very well received by the audience. They were quieter than many of the audiences we’ve danced for but there was a lot of toe tapping and plenty of applause when we’d finished.

After the break we decided to go for a more glamorous look and had the chance to wear our sparkly dresses. Were the audience getting used to us, or was the wine that was served during the interval starting to hit the spot? I guess we’ll never know, but whichever it was the audience were definitely livelier in the second half. Not only were they clapping along to the music, but we even managed to get a few of them up to join in.

It was a fantastic evening and our thanks go to Olive and her colleagues at St Michael’s not only for inviting us to join them, but for looking after us so well while we were there – lots of very nice tea and biscuits in the interval. With a little bit of help from us St Michael’s was able to raise £250 for the Gambian Schools Trust – well done.