[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Autumn Social 2015 ] [ Christmas Social Dance 2015 ] [ New Year Social 2016 ] [ Burns Night 2016 ] [ Annual Ball 2016 ] [ Spring Social 2016 ] [ West MACs Ball 2016 ] [ Summer Social 2016 ]

Caroline's Soup Evening

Held at Church of the Ascension, The Avenue, Wembley from 8pm on Monday 4th January 2016.

Please note we will be in the Main Hall (where we held the Christmas dance) this evening. 

Once again Caroline's Soup Kitchen will be opening up for another evening of culinary delights. To accompany the fare on offer, the programme of dances has been hidden within the following dissertation. Some are obvious and some are disguised as pretty groan worthy puns for which I apologise in advance. 

There are 10 dances and they will be danced in the order they appear in the text (highlighted in red):

The Pantomime

A traditional treat at this time of year is taking the family to the pantomime. Starting out as a silent art form, the pantomime has developed into a slightly zany musical comedy, full of bonhomie and joie de vivre. There needs to be something for everyone – lots of jokes and audience participation for the children, sing-a-longs for the grandparents and there can even be a bit of saucy behaviour to appeal to the gentlemen, without, of course, ever crossing the line of decent family entertainment.

Many pantomimes are based on traditional fairy stories: for example Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and, probably the best known, Cinderella. In this enchanting tale a poor servant girl goes from working in her step-mother’s kitchen to the fabulous palace of a handsome prince who has invited all the girls in the realm to a ball hoping to meet and marry the best. Set in the hall of his palace, the climactic scene is where Cinderella meets him for the first time and they dance and fall in love – all good icky stuff. However, it’s not all butterscotch and honey, Cinderella’s evil step-sisters also want to woo the prince and the dark side of the panto comes out as they try to prevent the prince from finding her again.

Many celebrities such as sports stars and pop singers are drafted into appearing in pantomimes to help boost their appeal. It is not unknown for some famous acts to go straight into panto rehearsals from playing at Glastonbury. Touring around the provincial cities, you are sure to find the most unlikely stars playing all manner of parts. However, the introduction of non-professionals does sometimes disturb the equilibrium – on one famous occasion a rock and roll star was drinking so heavily he had too much scotch, missed the second half and was never asked to perform again.

So it’s all good innocent fun. Between the hectic build-up to Christmas (and all the burning of the midnight oil that this entails) and the Hogmanay Celebrations (with all their pazzazz and Fireworks) reeling in the New Year, the pantomime is the perfect way to relax.

Graham Hamilton