About Us

The Afton Dance Club was formed in 1972 following the demise of the Afton School of Dancing. A number of the members of the Dance School decided they wanted to continue their hobby and not lose the social contact and pleasure they had gained from their dancing. Six members who were still competing and required practice facilities then formed a “committee” to create and organise a dance club to meet these needs. The principal of the Dance School, Marjory Murray, kindly agreed that the club could adopt the name “Afton”.

Over the years many competition dancers, including champions, played a prominent part in the Afton Club. Some of these including founding members David and Heather Oswald, the then Scottish Amateur Dance Champions, are still active members to this day. In those early days the club used the Gorgie War Memorial Church Hall mid-week and the Churchill Theatre Hall on Saturdays. The work of running it was shared by the six – transporting the music equipment and tea-making equipment, keeping a register, playing music and organising the tea breaks.

Later in the seventies the Committee managed to hire the Westfield Hall, a lovely hall popular for hosting private functions. Mr Findlay the owner was friendly and arranged cooked meals at the club parties. Unfortunately, after a number of years, the club had to move on when the premises were sold. New venues were found at The Thomas Morton Hall (TMH) in Leith for Thursday evenings and the Gillis Centre in Strathearn Road for Saturdays. The TMH hall was very large and coped well with the high numbers of members who joined the club in that period. For many years subsequently the committee was headed up by Alan and Norma Millar, then Scottish Amateur Dance Champions.

The club had to vacate the Gillis Centre in October 2017 after which Saturday dancing moved to Craigmillar Park Church Hall (CPCH) in Newington. After a long gap from March 2020 till January 2022 caused by the Covid outbreak the Thomas Morton Hall ceased to be available and weekday dancing also moved to CPCH on Wednesday evenings. Following Covid, attendances were low and recovery was slow.
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During 2023 the club was given notice that CPCH was to be sold and the search for new premises had to begin. In all almost 30 venues were investigated before dancing ceased at CPCH on 13^th July. After a short midweek trial of South Mayfield Church the club settled down in September 2024 to using St Ninian’s Church Hall in Corstorphine on Wednesday evenings and Juniper Green Church Hall on Saturday evenings. By this time weekly attendances had recovered to between 14 and 24 dancers per session.