Gallery

Route 66 Social Night at The Turks Head, Temple Bar
January 25th 2017

Route 66 Hallowe’en Party at The Turks Head, Temple Bar
October 28th 2015

Route 66 10 Year Birthday Party at The Turks Head, Temple Bar
July 16th 2014

Route 66 Birthday Party at The Turks Head, Temple Bar
July 6th 2011

Route 66 celebrated a big birthday bash on July 6th at the Turks Head in Temple Bar, Dublin. It was Jamie’s 10 year anniversary of teaching swing dancing in Dublin and also the 7 year anniversary of Route 66, Dublin’s longest running social swing dance night. What a brilliant night to remember!!

Susie’s Q’s at The Camden Ballroom
May 30th 2007

The Hi-Tones at The Camden Ballroom Launch
March 28th 2007

The Long John Jump Band at Radio City
February 14th 2007

Christmas at The Garda Club
December 17th 2006

Christmas at The Vaults
December 11th 2005

The Garda Club Workshop
November 12th & 13th 2005

Hallowe’en at The Vaults
October 26th 2005

Josh and Val Workshop
August 2005

The Garda Club Workshop
July 2005

Portadown
May 2005

The Vaults Launch Party
March 2005

Route 66 at The Metropolitan
July 2004 to March 2005

We are no longer running
Swing Dance / Lindy Hop classes
or social nights

Farewell from Jamie and Clare

Hi Everyone,

The last year and a half of living under the shadow of Covid has wrought many changes to all of our lives. As well, it has been a period of reflection and introspection, of re-examination of priorities.

Following much consideration, changing of plans and of minds, reconsideration, indecision, trepidation, and finally acceptance, Clare and I have come to the difficult decision to step away from teaching dancing.

This truly has not been an easy decision for us. We have years — for me, Jamie, Covid stopped us about 3 weeks before the 19th anniversary of the first dance class I taught in Ireland — of happy memories and have met so many wonderful people over the years, that it’s hard to imagine that not being a part of our lives.

Or rather, it would have been difficult to imagine pre-covid. Having had that responsibility — of organising classes, organising DJs, finding venues, publicising, responding to emails, taking phone calls at any hour of the day, night or weekend, teaching twice a week for 45+ weeks per year, and doing all of that on top of day jobs and raising 2 kids, and as a result being physically and mentally exhausted most of the time — lifted from our shoulders for the first time in 19 years, it was so liberating, as you can probably imagine, given the above list! And we realised that it was something that we just need to do, for our own sakes and for our kids.

As it turns out, our hands would likely have been forced anyway, as I have now signed up for a 2-year course to add qualifications related to my work, and the classes are only on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

We don’t intend to stop dancing altogether. Teaching our classes was always great fun, and we enjoyed it immensely. At the same time, it made the dancing into work, and we both tended to avoid social dancing as a result. We hope that stepping back like this will help us to rediscover our joy in dancing again and do more actual social dancing.

All of that being said, it was still difficult to contemplate giving up our “baby”! I’ve been teaching and organising social dances since 2000, and Route 66 has been going since 2004! We know that the social night in particular is (or was!) a beloved part of many people’s weekly routines, and we wanted to be sure we could hand it over to someone who had many of the same philosophies of teaching and social dancing as us, and who could be relied upon to take over the organisational reins on a long-term basis without letting it drop. For us, Alan fit that bill perfectly, and we were SO happy that he was willing to take over the night from us.

Yes, there will likely be some changes — some due to his own style, some due to the realities of the post-Covid world (whenever that actually arrives!!), which may even necessitate a change of venue and/or night (as Alan himself will elaborate upon further himself) — but the relaxed, drop-in nature of the classes and many of the same DJs will remain the same, he’s got many of the Dublin-based teachers you all know lined up to teach the classes, and of course the most important thing that made the nights so special will also be there: all of YOU, the students and dancers! This night was never about us; it was always you guys and the special friendships you made while sharing dances that really built the community you all came to love so much.

So whenever and wherever Alan is finally able to bring the night back, go out and hit the dance floor and celebrate with each other, and bring back the joy you used to feel and have been missing for so long. And if you see us out dancing, be sure to come over and ask us for a dance!! 🕺 💃 🥰 🥰 🥰