Part of the Dancing in Jersey Spotlight Q&A series.
Welcome to the third edition of Dancing in Jersey's new Q&A series, Spotlight Q&A. In this series, founder Hayley delves into the stories and passions behind Jersey's vibrant dance community.
The series continues with a conversation with Karl Busch, who shares the inspiring journey behind the Tea Dance Club and Step55 Club. Combining ballroom, sequence, and line dancing, these initiatives promote health, wellbeing, and community for over-55s and beyond. Karl discusses how the clubs combat social isolation, support carers, and foster intergenerational connections, while also highlighting their impactful partnership with Dementia Jersey.
Dancing in Jersey (DiJ): What inspired you to start the Tea Dance Club, and how has the journey been so far?
Karl Busch (KB): Tea Dance Club (TDC) is a social enterprise registered in the UK, and at the heart of it's community interest statement is our support for health and wellbeing, particularly as we age. For me, it is a way of connecting my interest in dance and social wellbeing with the nostalgia of afternoon tea, with a partner gliding around the floor to some lovely music.
I brought TDC with me when I came to Jersey in 2018 after meeting my now-wife Andrea on a cruise whilst dance hosting on cruise ships. Together, we have been running tea dances here ever since. We were riding the wave just before Covid, however, social distancing changed our traditional format of ballroom and sequence dance, and we have only just now resumed our regular Monday slot now at Trinity Parish Hall from 14:00 - 16:00. We are now back to our traditional format of ballroom sequence and occasional line dance, having evolved our successful new project Step55 Club post-Covid. We now have two entities: the tea dance afternoon tea based format and the Step55 line dance based activity. Both are flying the flag for health and wellbeing.
DiJ: How has the club impacted the community, particularly in fostering connections and well-being?
KB: For me, there is an emotional attachment to the tea dance. It is an opportunity to catch-up with friends and acquaintances - sometimes from decades ago - make new friends, and socialise. For some, it is the highlight of the week just to sit, chat and watch, and for others, it's their chance to dance, sometimes not having had that opportunity for years. As a host, you give that opportunity of connectivity and enjoy the occasion. We set things up and the dancers make it happen. We have provided the community a structure to build on, where they can share their expertise and talent, which then enables us to scale our activities back into the local community.
DiJ: How do you encourage intergenerational participation in the club?
KB: Our target market is the over 55’s, however, there is no age restriction as we are keen to connect with a diverse cross-section of the community. Our reach connects across three generations with grandparents bringing their adult children and grandchildren, which is quite often the case during holiday periods. We have found that line dancing in particular helps with connection across the age groups, with music and dance routines connecting through a variety of styles and tastes; disco, country, and dance fitness being some. It is a delight to see three generations dance together. Children pick routines up so fast!
DiJ: How do you decide on the dances and activities offered, and what has the response been?
KB: We cover a comprehensive range of most ballroom and line dance tastes and experience. As you gain experience as a host, you build an ability to adjust to the dancers’ requirements on the day. We are flexible and regularly dance to new routines that customers themselves bring to our dances. This way, the style and variety of our events provide new routines to learn, whilst enjoying the comfort of the old favourites.
Our line dance classes tend to have a more structured format as many of the dances are led by the more experienced dancers themselves. We are fortunate to have some really experienced dancers, particularly Ann Nicole who has helped build a high standard for the rest of us to aspire to. Ann's classes help our Step55 project in drawing dancers up through a range of abilities, enabling those that want to lead, to lead, and others to learn, advance, and enjoy more routines and music styles. People like Ann are ambassadors for cognitive and learning skills that are so vital to our health and wellbeing, especially as we age. Our classes are really becoming popular through the resurgence in line dancing, but also through people knowing that the activity of dance ticks all the right boxes in keeping us healthy, active, and connected.
DiJ: Why is it important to provide a space for carers and those they care for?
KB: Caring is such a pivotal part of health and wellbeing. Many of us will experience being a carer, or cared for, or both at some time in our lives. I have had many years personal experience being a carer and have also been a trustee for the charity Unite Carers in the UK. Caring involves huge pressure mentally and physically on - in many cases - the unpaid family carer. It is imperative that we build a culture where we understand the wider implications on carers, the wider community and economy. How we care reflects on us as a civilised society.
Prior to Covid, our tea dances built an environment where carers would bring the cared-for to relax and chat to fellow carers in a safe environment, whilst other dancers would help in dancing with and chatting to both. We are now encouraging this environment back again now that social restrictions are thankfully a thing of the past. Most of us will succumb to ill health at some point, and caring will determine the quality of our living when we do. It should not be the case that caring is a distant, demining task that someone else does, it should be something that each and every one of us is ready for and supports, as we would our own health. Caring is overwhelmingly deeply emotional and exhausting. Without it, our economy is unsustainable.
At Tea Dance Club, our heart is in supporting both the cared for and carer, and part of our mission is to re-build that wonderful caring environment we had before Covid with the help of our amazing dancers.
DiJ: How does the club help combat social isolation and build community?
KB: Prolonged social isolation impacts our health and equates to smoking 15 cigarettes a day (source: various health statistics). It is so easy to fall into social isolation: something that is not exclusive to, but is more prominent in later life. There is nothing like a cup of tea, slice of cake,and sandwiches to get people talking, and at a tea dance, we have this in abundance.
Our tea dances produce a physical energy through dance but even more importantly, a social energy that is so important given that not everyone can dance all the time, especially given physical and mobility restrictions. "We have guests who sit, watch, sing, and perhaps take a few steps on the dance floor - or even just enjoy from the sidelines. Each one, however, adds to the occasion, making it enjoyable for everyone. We all love to talk, and I personally thoroughly enjoy chatting with our guests and always leave enthused through doing so. We are a community of like-minded individuals who are using their interest in dance to help build inclusivity through a low threshold to join in, be sociable, be active, and dance.
DiJ: What motivated you to launch Step55 Club, and how does it complement the Tea Dance Club?
KB: Step55 Club started as a 'Connect Me' Government funded project in September 2022. As with most other average individuals, I am keen to have an as active and healthy life as possible, and what better way than to make that happen and share it with like-minded people for the benefit of us all. The idea was to support line dancing as an alternative to the close physical contact of ballroom during Covid, and has proved popular with dancers without a partner.
Now in our third year of 'Connect Me' funding, the project continues to be a great success. Part of our success is that tea dances can be a combination of ballroom and line dance, traditional ballroom-only, or line dance-only dances. We now have line dance and activity classes every weekday (bar Thursday), sometimes with multiple classes per day. We have a monthly line dance-only tea dance at Communicare, and a weekly ballroom tea dance at Trinity.
Our daily dance classes provide the tea dances with plenty of keen dancers who want to enjoy the routines they know and love, but also the new ones they need to learn and practice. As dancers, we all need regular practice to keep up to scratch, irrespective of whether it's line dance or ballroom. I teamed up with Ann Nicole and Ann Dove, who are both fantastic experienced dancers, and Step55 was born. Ann Nicole keeps the line dancing on the rails and Ann Dove is a qualified contemporary dancer who runs our dance fitness classes and wellbeing Eastern Inspired Movement classes. Fraser, who is a keen Latin American and Lindy Hop dancer, is now also supporting us with ballroom solo step classes which are going really well (especially as no partner is needed), and Helen supports our DJ activity classes with yoga. Along with our six leads, Pip and Judi are the backbone of our St. Martin’s classes, and together, we all put energy into what we do and receive so much back. We are a great team. It’s brilliant and we love it!
DiJ: How has Step55 responded to the resurgence of line dancing post-COVID?
KB: Line dancing is the foundation of our Step55 project, which is soon to be a social enterprise and community interest company partly owned by its members. It has enabled us to connect with the line dance community that thrived here in Jersey in the past, and enabled us to build on that experience to run classes and further empower others to learn and lead routines, building confidence and supporting cognitive as well as physical exercise. Step55 Club is now at the forefront of helping us in preparing for later life and facing age-related diseases such as Dementia.
DiJ: What are your future plans for both clubs?
KB: Our structure of empowerment of others has evolved from line dancing into other activity classes, which has enabled us to both maintain existing, and form new dance classes whilst providing experienced individuals to work closely with Dementia Jersey (DJ). We now provide DJ with our own developed activity classes such Eastern Inspired Movement (EMI) which is our own adaptation of Tai Chi, yoga, dance, and disco chair-based classes to dementia customers. Our project is taking a serious look at how we address health and wellbeing from the age of 55, particularly as our individual ability to exercise and remain socially connected become more restricted.
We are able to rely on the loyalty of our activity and dance customers in helping us grow and share our common interest in supporting health and wellbeing as we age. Together, we are working towards a sustainable model for stemming the increase in age-related illness through preventative physical and cognitive exercise. We will be looking for funding and investment for our community-inspired business.
DiJ: What has been the most rewarding part of running these clubs?
KB: Our work with DJ is a vindication of our achievement. In addition to the activity classes we provide, we also provide our own volunteer dancers who work as a Step55 Club team to run line dancing tea dances for dementia sufferers. Everyone has a part to play from preparing the cakes and sandwiches, setting up, and clearing away. Along with the DJ volunteers, we provide an afternoon of connectedness and entertainment. We dance with our dementia guests and the experience is just amazing. It is heart-warming and really quite emotional. I think it is for others too. I am so proud of what we are achieving.
