English Dance and Song Summer 2023
This news item is based on articles in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts.
Our 2021 mini grants for Covid recovery successfully supported a diverse range of applicants as they returned to in-person dancing.
We offered more mini grants in 2022 – and this time the opportunity was opened up to individuals and groups or organisations who wanted to start up a new folk dance project, or to develop wsomething new within their existing dance activity.
Five grants of £500 were awarded to Jo Veal, Kekezza, Elizabeth Lawson, Jo Clare and Movema.
Laura Connolly, Dance Development Manager, reports here on the results.
Dancing Under the Light of the Silvery Moon
Jo Veal, event organiser, writes:
‘Dancing Under the Light of the Silvery Moon’ is a slice of magic born out of the pandemic, enabling musicians and dancers to get together to enjoy music and dancing outside whilst there were restrictions on meeting inside. The intention is to create joy and social connections between people, and also connections between art forms – music, dance and shadow puppetry. All this within an ethos of inclusivity, gently encouraging everyone to join in with a part of the whole, either playing music, dancing, creating puppets, or simply being present.
We chose our event to be on May 1st to celebrate May Day and also the almost full hare moon. The day began with a shadow puppetry workshop at Abbeyfield House, a beautiful community run centre for the local community to use. Myself and local artist Patrick Amber ran the workshop: around 30 people attended, of all ages and cultures, creating magical
dancing cows, leaping hares, flying ladybirds, a firebird and many more creatures, all ready to join the fun in the evening. Some people had not done anything creative since they were children, and felt supported and liberated to explore their own creativity. We used black card, coloured acetate and willow to construct the puppets, which can then be held up to the screen and lit from behind to come alive on the screen.
After the workshop, we headed up the hill to the local Parkwood Springs, an incredible urban healthland in the centre of Sheffield, high up on a hill looking West to the hills of the glorious Peak District. We set up the puppet screens – one a rectangular screen, and one a moon shaped screen – and then set about dancing as the sun made its journey to set, nestled in the hills on the horizon. Home-made bunting in fiery oranges, gold and reds, echoed the setting sun, was soon hung around the dance area, creating a sense of the space. A bird and a hare lantern took up residence at the edge of the dance floor, watching the goings on.
We started with a beginners’ dance workshop, run by local dancer Susannah Diamond and musician Emily Bowden to encourage and give confidence to those new to social folk dance. Circassian circle, bourree, langdans…dances from many different cultures, all bringing people together in joyful connection. The music began, the dancers started dancing, with cello, fiddle, clarinet, guitar, whistle and other instruments gradually joining in. A family from Romania arrived and asked if we knew the tune Alunelul as they knew the dance and could share it with us – we did! A wonderful impromptu moment of exchange and sharing of dance culture, bringing a taste of Romanian traditions to the heartland of Sheffield.
People set up picnics, kids did hula hooping, there was the murmur of gentle chatting, as the music and dancing flowed. As the sun began to set, the magical shadow puppets began to emerge. They danced to the music, leaping, playing and flying around the screen. Everyone was invited to bring the puppets to life, to join in with music, dancing, playing, to be a part of the spectacle, not just an observer. We took care to ensure everyone felt included and involved in whatever way they felt comfortable.
Darkness fell and the magic of the scene changed again, to one lit by fairylights, glowing lanterns and the puppet screens. In the half light, your imagination is freer to wander, taking you on a journey to another place, soothing the stresses of life, a balm for the soul. All in all, approximately 30 people attended the shadow puppet workshop and around 60 people the evening dance. People were from many different countries, including Denmark, Romania, Czech Republic, Russia and Poland.
Welcoming, beautiful and an absolute balm for the soul – Lisa
Stunningly beautiful with bunting and lights making for a magical backdrop to the music and dancing. I really enjoyed how it was a place both for dancing and also for being. People were having picnics, chatting, juggling. I was asked to dance a few times and even if I didn’t know the dances it felt a welcome atmosphere to participate in. The location is part of the magic. It’s lovely to see the sun set over the hills while the music is playing. And also really loved how different people would join in and play along to different songs. It was a very connecting space. Thank you so much for that! – Jonas
A brilliant day! You all made it so easy to join in with everything, to learn new creative skills and to feel part of the local community. I really enjoyed learning the dances, hearing the music (such a fabulous collection of instruments!) and having a go with the shadow puppets and seeing so many other people taking part as well. It was such a beautiful time and brilliant that it was walking distance from where we live, and making the most of being outside at a lovely local viewpoint to welcome the spring in. I haven’t done any dancing for a loooong time or ever been to anything like this. Thank you! – Ali
Kekezza
Kekezza is a Cornish dance group started by Lowenna Hosken as a young, 13 year old dancer as a way to engage more people her own age in the tradition.
Kekezza’s project focused on engaging more people in Cornish dance and passing on the tradition by running a series of open sessions for those in their late teens to early 40s.
“There is a real interest in Cornish culture, dance and music in the under 40s in Cornwall but access to learn more is very sparse. This is especially true of music and dance as there is an assumed skill level that is needed prior to learning the tradition. We are keen to provide open sessions to allow those with no previous experience the opportunity to join in and learn Cornish dances and their history”, says Lowenna.
The Morpeth Rant
Elizabeth Lawson, core member of traditional dance group Have Maypole will Travel, proposed to teach her local community (Brownies, WI groups, Church groups and local schools) to dance the longways set dance, The Morpeth Rant. This is a very special and unique dance from the North East of England. The project culminated in a mass dance during the Morpeth Gathering in April 2023.
Elizabeth reports:
I wanted to give everyone the chance to have a go, and I wanted to reach people who do not usually engage in folk dance.
We had a total of 96 adults and 266 children (aged seven to eighteen) participating in workshops. In addition, we had approximately another 159 people who didn’t take part but watched. We had some local publicity through an internet channel, Morpeth TV, which has 6,000 subscribers. For the majority of the people taking part, of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, this was their first ever encounter with traditional English dance. Time and again we were met with amazement that England had any traditional dance at all. We tailored the workshops to the abilities of the participants, using slightly easier versions where appropriate, although everybody saw how the dance should look. As the Morpeth Rant is a challenging dance, we always began with the Circassian Circle, which was also new to almost all the participants.
After that, for some groups it was enough to learn how to do a star and the basics of a longways set. For the Northumbrian Ranters, the county youth folk orchestra, we taught rant stepping, polkaing and flourishes. I’m most proud of the lovely day we spent with Headway Arts, which is a learning-disabled arts group, who were an absolute delight to work with. Dancing makes me happy and gave me access to a wonderful community.
Two Left Feet!
Jo Clare writes:
The aim of the project was to make folk dance accessible to a diverse range of people in the SE London Borough of Greenwich. The project’s focus brought together a class of year 3 primary school children and a group of over 60s adults who learnt international folk dances which were performed at Mycenae House on May 5th, followed by a ceilidh where the audience were encouraged to take part. The performance couldn’t have gone better!
The Two Left Feet over 60s group performed five dances consecutively, three of which were with the school children. They then had a break while the year 3s danced Troika, which was one of the highlights of the project. The children loved the boisterousness of the dance which reflected in their faces.
The Ceilidh followed, parents danced with their children and older people danced with friends and the public. I was amazed to lead a Romanian Gypsy dance with so many people and was encouraged by the Manager of Mycenae House to run overtime because so many people were still up for dancing. The Ceilidh was excellently accompanied by two talented young musicians, Elye Cuthbertson and Mia Ilez-Perez.
Movema and Boss Morris
Maria Malone reports:
Movema is an award winning, world dance charity run by four female artists from culturally diverse backgrounds based and working in the most deprived areas of Liverpool and Bristol. They hosted two masterclasses with Boss Morris, an all-female morris dancing side who perform across the UK with their unique take on the traditional English folk dance.
Thanks to funding from English Folk Dance and Song Society we were able to run free masterclasses with Boss Morris.
The first was for artists working in dance to enable them to add simple English dances and cultural information to the repertoire of dances they teach in schools and communities and to also inspire them creatively for performance projects in future. Local Morris dancers also attended to learn from Boss Morris’ approach.
The second was for everyone, including members of our diverse Liverpool communities to introduce them to morris dance and to come together to understand more about each other and about English traditions in a safer space.
Through the project I reached out to local morris sides, many of which have disbanded and are under threat as they have no new members; they were interested in how this project could meet new people, attract new members to their sides and make them more diverse and inclusive.
The response to this brief, 5-week project has been great: artists, participants and audiences have been really intrigued and excited about finding out about English dance, working with Boss Morris and seeing how the three styles came together.
We will be offering mini grants for dance again in autumn 2023. Watch out for information on our website and social media.
