![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Good day for the longsword team
Mar. 19th, 2019 10:20 am One of the things that bedevils morris teams is trying to recruit younger members. The older teams get, the harder it is to recruit younger dancers. The more women you have in a team, the harder it can become to recruit men.
The converse does not apply as strongly. It's easy to get older people to join a younger team. Women are more likely to join a predominately male team.
Around seven years ago, Anonymous Morris did a workshop with a local scout group. It gained them a 12 year old recruit, who has grown as the team has grown, is now over 6ft tall and one of our best dancers. He recently recruited his girlfriend and she's a really good dancer too.
It looks like Southern Star may have pulled it off too. Fingers crossed.
A couple of weeks ago, we did a longsword workshop with a scout group. We sorted the children into groups based on height (swords dances are both easier and safer when dancers in the same set are similar in height) and asked them to choose their own 'number 1'. Number 1 leads the dancers and calls the figures.
Half way through the evening, I over-rode their choice and appointed a new number 1. It wasn't that the original boy was particularly bad, just that the new boy was significantly better. He was already calling out most of the moves, had a really good sense of position and obviously had a good visualisation of the overall dance in his head. (the group, including the former leader, were perfectly happy with this decision).
At the end of the evening, I handed out leaflets for Southern Star to all the most promising dancers and had a chat with W in particular. Turned out that he lived in Corfe Mullen...
I made it clear that he would be very welcome indeed if he did choose to join us.
After that you just have to cross your fingers.
He didn't turn up for the two weeks after the workshop, and I'd decided that our luck wasn't in, but last night, he appeared!
Learnt everything with the speed of greased lightening, seemed to really enjoy himself and says he may bring a friend next week!
Yea! Even teams led by ladies of age 60 can occasionally gain youngsters. Sometimes, the dance is good enough, and the enthusiasm infectious enough to work the magic.
W is a natural. Not one of life's extroverts, but has a sense of position that is essential for sword dancing. He also listens and remembers. (not familiar with the terms clockwise and anti-clockwise -but that's digital time for you - I have to remember to say right and left turn, rather than clock and a/c)
It helps that we now have four regular experienced dancers. It's much, much easier to learn sword dancing when you have experienced dancers in the set. As you all hold the end of someone else's sword, they can help draw you in the correct direction. When we started out a couple of years ago, no one except myself had any experience of sword dancing and it could take ages to get a single move correct. Now, we all learn a lot faster.
So, here's hoping W is back next week!
I have a six man dance from the tradition that I'd love to try, but that will have to wait until we have eight active members. Two of our existing members aren't flexible enough around the knees to do fast over the sword moves while rotating the circle at the same time. For the time being, I'll teach our 3 and four man dances and look for traditional six man figures that don't involve going over the swords.
The converse does not apply as strongly. It's easy to get older people to join a younger team. Women are more likely to join a predominately male team.
Around seven years ago, Anonymous Morris did a workshop with a local scout group. It gained them a 12 year old recruit, who has grown as the team has grown, is now over 6ft tall and one of our best dancers. He recently recruited his girlfriend and she's a really good dancer too.
It looks like Southern Star may have pulled it off too. Fingers crossed.
A couple of weeks ago, we did a longsword workshop with a scout group. We sorted the children into groups based on height (swords dances are both easier and safer when dancers in the same set are similar in height) and asked them to choose their own 'number 1'. Number 1 leads the dancers and calls the figures.
Half way through the evening, I over-rode their choice and appointed a new number 1. It wasn't that the original boy was particularly bad, just that the new boy was significantly better. He was already calling out most of the moves, had a really good sense of position and obviously had a good visualisation of the overall dance in his head. (the group, including the former leader, were perfectly happy with this decision).
At the end of the evening, I handed out leaflets for Southern Star to all the most promising dancers and had a chat with W in particular. Turned out that he lived in Corfe Mullen...
I made it clear that he would be very welcome indeed if he did choose to join us.
After that you just have to cross your fingers.
He didn't turn up for the two weeks after the workshop, and I'd decided that our luck wasn't in, but last night, he appeared!
Learnt everything with the speed of greased lightening, seemed to really enjoy himself and says he may bring a friend next week!
Yea! Even teams led by ladies of age 60 can occasionally gain youngsters. Sometimes, the dance is good enough, and the enthusiasm infectious enough to work the magic.
W is a natural. Not one of life's extroverts, but has a sense of position that is essential for sword dancing. He also listens and remembers. (not familiar with the terms clockwise and anti-clockwise -but that's digital time for you - I have to remember to say right and left turn, rather than clock and a/c)
It helps that we now have four regular experienced dancers. It's much, much easier to learn sword dancing when you have experienced dancers in the set. As you all hold the end of someone else's sword, they can help draw you in the correct direction. When we started out a couple of years ago, no one except myself had any experience of sword dancing and it could take ages to get a single move correct. Now, we all learn a lot faster.
So, here's hoping W is back next week!
I have a six man dance from the tradition that I'd love to try, but that will have to wait until we have eight active members. Two of our existing members aren't flexible enough around the knees to do fast over the sword moves while rotating the circle at the same time. For the time being, I'll teach our 3 and four man dances and look for traditional six man figures that don't involve going over the swords.
