DANCE LEADERS’ RETREAT UNSTONE GRANGE, UNSTON, DERBYSHIRE
9-11 TH JANUARY 2026

We are delighted to announce and invite you to join us for The Annual Dance Leaders’ Retreat,
which will be back at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire,
on 9-11th January (Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon).

This is a wonderful opportunity to meet in a more professional capacity with your fellow dance leaders, share dances and discuss relevant issues that affect us both in our rôle as leaders and as a community.

Connection, community, inspiration and a sense of renewal are what you can hope to leave this weekend with..

Its also important for the future of the dances and the dance community that we come together to take decisions and lay down firm foundations so that the dances can thrive here in the UK.

At last year’s retreat we took the decision to expand the membership of the Guild to include the dancers as associate members, which has really opened up lines of communication across the dance network.

As a result of this renewed energy we organised and held our first Camp without Camping weekend at the Nightingale Centre earlier this month.

It went really well: we had 40 participants ranging in age from 2 to 82; people came from as far North as Findhorn, as far South as Totnes, as far West as South Wales and as far East as Northumberland. We had three participants who had never danced before and are now actively seeking dance opportunities near them, we have someone who has found a mentor and decided to step onto to the path of Dance Leading, and someone else who is seriously considering it. Twenty-two of us led dances, one of us for the first time. Old friendships were renewed and new friendships made. Dance Leaders were able to connect and as a result we have planted some seeds for Regional Dance Days this coming year, which will hopefully start to germinate when we meet again at Unstone Grange.

A little bit about the practicalities:

We have chosen Unstone Grange, which is a slightly shabby old manor house with a lovely, welcoming atmosphere in the Derbyshire Dales.

We are running the weekend as a pot luck, with everyone bringing a vegetarian dish to share. We will provide breakfast, bread, teas, coffee & biscuits. Last year this worked really well and we feasted like royalty on everyone’s delicious offerings.

The reason we have chosen to run the weekend somewhere simple and opt for self-catering, is so that we can keep the prices low. Unfortunately, this means that the venue is not fully accessible. (We are committed to looking for a new venue for 2027 that will be equally cost-effective and also accessible. If any of you know of somewhere suitable, please send us the details ASAP as bookings need to be made a year in advance.)

Here’s the link to Unstone Grange. Although they have a maximum capacity of 30, we will be capping the number at 25, which will be more comfortable both in terms of bedrooms and space in the room where we dance. There is no option for single occupancy but we will try to space you out as much as possible.

www.unstonegrange.co.uk

We really hope that you can come and join us. We would love to see you and look forward to a heart-opening weekend of dancing and being together.

We have eight firm bookings already, so please book soon if you’re interested in coming…To view prices, press the ‘book now’ button and the various options are listed.