The fun, free event saw people come together from across the community to learn the steps to a beginners’ routine, which was choreographed especially for participants by Luba.
Luba was streamed live from Royal Voluntary Service’s Virtual Village Hall into the Cadent Centre for Warmth at Saint Germain's Community Hub in Birmingham, giving the attendees a “big shoutout”. The 50-minute session started with Luba breaking down the beginners’ steps, giving advice and tips along the way, and culminated in everyone dancing along to the music with Luba. Afterwards attendees caught up about the session over refreshments and a lunch of baked potatoes.
The class was part of leading charity Royal Voluntary Service’s Winter Warmers, a series of fun dance sessions being hosted on the Virtual Village Hall this month in partnership with Cadent. As part of the charity’s Stay Safe, Warm and Well campaign, the series is designed to help people stay warm while learning something new together and includes Beginners’ Charleston, Seated Ballet, Seated Dance Fusion and Bollywood Dance classes.
One person who took part in the session at the Centre for Warmth said: “Having previously been homeless, the centre was a blessing for help, advice and seeing people. I hadn’t heard of the Virtual Village Hall before this session, but I will now be looking at it weekly to see what other sessions I can get involved with.”
Heather, the Manager of the Cadent Centre for Warmth said: “The centre offers such a wide variety of activities and having this Royal Voluntary Service session adds to the variety. We have a diverse group that use this place so putting on different sessions like this means everyone can get involved in something.”
Anyone who missed Luba’s class or would like to tune into any of the Winter Warmers can do so at Royal Voluntary Service’s Virtual Village Hall where all sessions are available to join both live or on demand.
The charity’s Stay Safe, Warm and Well campaign, delivered with long-term partner Yakult and Stay Warm partner Cadent, offers wellbeing guidance and support throughout the winter. The campaign includes a ‘Stay Safe, Warm and Well’ guide which features valuable advice including how to stay healthy and socially connected during winter, as well as providing vital practical help with topics such as money-saving advice and energy-saving tips.
The full programme of Winter Warmer events can be found at the Virtual Village Hall: virtualvillagehall.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk. The Stay Safe, Warm and Well guide is available at: royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/safe-warm-well.
Royal Voluntary Service is one of Britain’s largest volunteering charities with volunteers supporting the NHS, adult social care and thousands of vulnerable people in the community. The charity delivers the NHS and Care Volunteer Responders programme for NHS England, enabled by the GoodSAM app, with volunteers responding to over 2.6 million requests for help to support approximately 200,000 people, and completing over 363,000 shifts at vaccination sites. The charity also works in local communities running home libraries, companionship support, home from hospital services and patient transport. Its Virtual Village Hall provides online activities and classes to promote wellbeing and keep people active.
For more information about Royal Voluntary Service, please visit https://www.royalvoluntaryservice.org.uk/