12,190!

That was the number of hits that we received in October 2016!  In March 2013, our first full month, we achieved 269 hits and actually dropped to 196 in August of that year. We are now averaging 393 hits in a single day.

I started this blog on the 25 Feb 2013 with a review of Ballet West's performance of The Nutcracker at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Since then we have published 777 posts including contributions from Alison Winward, Ciara Sturrock, David Murley, Gita Mistry, Janet McNulty, Joanne Goodman, Mary Howard, Peter Groves and Mel Wong.  My thanks to each and every one of them.

Our most popular article to date was my interview with Gavin McCaig of Northern Ballet on 3 Sept 2014, followed by my reviews of the Junior Company's opening night in Amsterdam on 8 Feb 2016, Ballet West's 2016 Nutcracker and Romeo and Juliet in 2015 and Chelmsford Ballet's Nutcracker in 2014.

This blog has recorded important events in my life such as  my first lesson with the over 55 class of Northern Ballet and my first performance on film with Chantry Dance and my first live performance on the stage of the Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre.

I have reviewed some great performances such as Ted Brandsen's Mata Hari, David Dawson's Swan Lake, Cranko's Onegin and David Nixon's Midsummer Night's Dream. Some of those shows have been in great theatres like the Stopera and Covent Garden. Others have been local theatres in small towns like the Chelmsford Civic and the Teatro Silvio Pelico in Trecate.

Through blogging I have seen some of the greatest dancers of all time such as Antoinette Sibley and Beryl Gray and shaken hands with some of the great names like Li-Cunxin and Peter Wright. I have also met some fine people - some on stage as dancers and choreographers, others in the studio as teachers and fellow students and many more in the auditorium or at talks who simply share my passion for dance.

I should like to thank all those who have danced for me or created dance for me, all who have taught me dance and all who have contributed in one way or another to this blog.