watervole | (no subject)

Just back from Eastercon, probably a day later than most other folk.

Mine was a con of four parts.

1. Morris

2. LARP

3. Doc Weir

4. Programme

The morris, you probably anticipated: I did the ceilidh workshop, two Border morris workshops and a longsword (which is nothing like the Scottish dance that half of you will now be visualising) workshop and all were well attended. I was aided by an excellent group of musicians, which freed me to concentrate on teaching the dances without having to play at the same time.

People really got into the spirit of it and had a lot of fun. It was great to see smiling faces - and the occasional laugh when the longsword groups got into a tangle. Longsword is a bit like that - the dancers are in a linked ring and you go under and over various arches/swords without ever letting go your hands. Turn the wrong way by mistake and you can get in a real tangle.

Longsword is less physically demanding than morris, but a lot less forgiving of mistakes as you can't just slip quickly back into place as you can after a mistake in morris.

I asked on Friday if anyone would like to do a morris dance in the cabaret and got two volunteers. Kethry and Sean (and a couple of the band) gave up a couple of hours of their time practising 'Cuckoo's Nest' with me on the fourth floor landing. It's not the easiest of dances, as it has some tricky stepping on the chorus and a wide variety of stick moves, but they ended up giving an almost flawless performance in the cabaret and getting some enthusiastic applause from the audience.

I was absolutely delighted. There's few so happy as a teacher whose pupils excel.

I'm looking forward to doing more dance workshops at Discworld.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I so would have been there for the morris, but was slowly dying a death with a chest infection :(

I heard some of the SCA were ill and immediately thought of you.

If you want someone to teach morris/longsword/maypole at an event and it's one I can easily get to, then I'd probably be willing to do it (though cannot guarantee to wear period costume).

Congratulations! I know I can only share like that but I feel like one of your Anonymous.:-) I am very proud to hear about this success, you ARE an excellent teacher and there is FUN around you!!!

Sorry not to have seen more of you - though I can understand why!

The couple who did he morris were the best thing in the cabaret. Well done!

Unfortunately I couldn't get to the Border workshops because they clashed with Beyond Cyberdrome, but I very much enjoyed the longsword workshop on Monday.

The morris dance in the cabaret was brilliant. You wouldn't have guessed that one of the dancers had never done morris before (I couldn't tell which of them it was).

Oh, what fun - I love Cuckoo's nest but the hay is hard to teach.

We're off to Tideswell on Friday for Freaks in the Peaks; really looking forward to it.

We're talking about different dances - the Border version is a totally different dance from the Cotswold version and doesn't have a hey.

Here's the one we know:
http://youtu.be/8rWZCJIBjHc

(we tweaked it very slightly from the Powderkeg's version to get a smooth AB pattern on the music, but otherwise identical)

Oh, it's not at all unlike our Cuckoo's, in that we do the tips and butts, and the highs and lows the same, and the sticking is nearly the same. As is the music :)

Is that a crumhorn or a serpent I can hear? It's lovely!

Where's they hey in your version?

It's a while since I saw Powderkegs, so I can't now recall what the band were playing.

Just before the final sticking. Then we dance off in pairs.

How do you fit a hey into a two person dance? Or do you do a large circular hey if the dancers form a ring as in the Powderkeg's version?

We do it with four.