Late in 2023 I was asked by the Canterbury Region President to come and do a Deviser’s Day in the Canterbury Region on April 13th, 2024. To say I was delighted to be asked would be the understatement of the year. I have taught an afternoon of my dances in Wellington, and at the Perth Winter School in 2022 John Brenchley asked if I would teach some of my dances to the Advanced Low Impact class, which of course was amazing. However, this was a step up on both of those occasions and it was exciting to take up this opportunity.
I was to take an advanced class in the afternoon and a general class in the morning. I set to work looking first through my published dances, and then my brand-new material. They all went on a spread sheet to make sure I was covering lots of formations for both levels.
I also decided to devise a brand-new dance to give to the Canterbury Region to thank them for this wonderful opportunity to teach a day of my dances.
The dancers on the day were asked for suggestions for a name, for this brand-new Strathspey and 8 names came forward. Damon and I chose “Canterbury in Autumn” as looking out the windows of the hall it was the most beautiful sunny autumn day with such amazing colours in the trees all around us - the dance really named itself. Surely the prettiest season of the year in Christchurch.
The day went well, and I loved it from start to finish, and the cream on the top was that the new President of the Region asked if I would come back again the following year to do another day with them.