Since the idea for Tiempo España Dance Academy was born it has grown considerably to a point where recommendations are now our primary source of new students across our various locations. From our first classes in Eggborough with just a few students we now run classes of often significant sizes in 6 locations around Yorkshire (Carlton, Selby, York, Leeds, Tadcaster & Hambleton) with our Leeds class running twice a week on Saturdays and on Wednesdays.
Team building days and wedding performances continue to increase in popularity and we now run private classes throughout the week. The 11th of December will see our first Cuban salsa party including a one hour Rueda class which will be the start of Tiempo España Dance Academy organising Cuban salsa events around Yorkshire so that our students have more opportunities to practise what they learnt in class.
It has been a real pleasure for both Aimi and myself to grow our dance school from its early days to the stage it has reached today. We are proud of our many students who have gone from being absolute beginners to become great dancers, ready to go social dancing whenever there is an event on.
While we were worried initially that teaching Cuban salsa every day of the week would eventually decrease the enthusiasm we feel for this dance, we continue to love every moment of it and would love to teach even more classes if we could. Unfortunately, like any company, we are restricted by financial constraints and have had to decline lessons in the past such as private classes in too remote locations, group classes in smaller villages where the initial interest did not cover the costs etc. It has been our utmost desire to be able to teach Cuban salsa to anyone who is interested in the region we live in and create a community of dancers that share our passion for this wonderful dance. After some small bureaucratic difficulties we are now in a position to follow this dream with our new company: Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C.
C.I.C. stands for community interest company which is a company structure in the UK that allows companies to maximise aspects that benefit the community which do not have to be monetary by nature. We will run our C.I.C. alongside but completely independently of Tiempo España Dance Academy to be able to offer the community we live in increased services especially to people who are not able to come to our ordinary classes for whatever reason.
Our normal partnership Tiempo España Dance Academy will continue to engage in the activities we have offered in the past such as organising group and private lessons, salsa events, wedding first dances, corporate team building days etc.
On the other hand, our new company Tiempo España Dance Academy C.I.C. will work closely with councils and charities around Yorkshire to provide benefits to the community in areas that were unattainable to our normal partnership in the past. These activities will of course depend on the available funding but some of the communities we would like to provide dance classes for are listed as follows:
- Disabled people
- People with learning difficulties
- People with a low household income who cannot afford dance lessons
- Mothers and/or fathers with small children who could bring their kids along to class
- Daytime or night-time rather than evening classes for shift workers
- Classes for people living in remote locations or people without a car
- Pensioners and people with reduced mobility who would prefer slower classes which are not too strenuous i.e. those limited by medical conditions etc
It is our hope that this newly formed C.I.C. will make our biggest hobby accessible to a wider pool of people to share our passion in an area they would not have the chance to experience otherwise and we are very excited to start the next chapter in our endeavour to bring Cuban salsa to Yorkshire.
