English Dance and Song Summer 2018
This article was published 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.
Rachel Elliott, EFDSS’ Education Director, and Laura Connolly, Dance Development Manager, report on EFDSS’ national conference, Steps for Success.
On 10 March we were delighted to present Steps for Success – a landmark national conference, and the first one run by EFDSS on the practice of English social folk dance for several decades.
Hosted at Cecil Sharp House, it was a lively day of presentations, dance workshops, advice sessions and panel discussions, asking: What helps English social folk dance to thrive? What are the barriers to success and how can they be overcome?
The diverse range of presenters and delegates – 85 of them – came from the length and breadth of England, from Cornwall to Northumberland, and represented many years of experience in varied contexts.
It was a busy day, with plenty of breakout options to enable as many different voices as possible to be heard.
We were happy to present Steps for Success in partnership with People Dancing, the development organisation and membership body for community and participatory dance, working across the UK and internationally. EFDSS has been in dialogue with People Dancing over recent years, and inviting their participation was an important way of building that relationship for the benefit of English social folk dancers and the wider community dance sector.
We were delighted that Chris Stenton, People Dancing’s Executive Director, was the keynote speaker for the conference. Chris set the scene for the day by giving delegates an overview of the diversifying nature of participatory dance in the UK today. He added that he was pleased to be asked to present, and in his thanks afterwards said:
It was a really positive day… it was very open and receptive. I enjoyed the conference a great deal, and leant a lot, too.
We also partnered with the Dance for Parkinson’s UK Partnership – which People Dancing facilitates – to present a workshop led by Anna Gillespie and Martina Schwarz of Musical Moving. This highlighted the potential for folk
dance in this growing area of healthrelated dance practice. Other practical dance workshops provided great opportunities for dancing, whilst stimulating lively discussion about the issues covered. These were Gender-free Calling led by David Oliver; Improving Your Dance Technique led by Mike Wilson-Jones; and Cultural Diversity and Folk Dance with Kerry Fletcher, Natasha Khamjani and other members of Folk Dance Remixed.
Jake Wood engagingly shared his thoughts on the hot topics affecting social folk dance. This paved the way for breakout discussions and information sessions on key issues. These included Safe and Inclusive Folk Dancing with Jen Morgan; Effective Marketing with Peter Craik; and a panel discussion on Music for Dancing led by Simon Care with Deborah Chalmers, Bryony Griffith, Sheena Masson and Mike Ruff.
There was also the opportunity throughout the day to hear a number of case studies about folk dance in varied community contexts from around the country. These included Cornish Folk Dance by Helen Musser; Awaken Village Interest in Dance (AVID) in Lincolnshire by Peter Barnard; Knees Up! Cecil Sharp ceilidhs in London by Mary Panton; and Chloe Middleton-Metcalfe shared her initial findings from her PhD research into Contemporary Barn Dances in Buckinghamshire.
Successful examples of social folk dance in schools were presented by Sheena Masson, who shared the inclusive approach taken by Camden Music Service’s Primary School Ceilidh Band Project; while Kerry Fletcher focused on how folk dance is a rich seam for creativity and high-quality practice in the upper secondary school curriculum.
Derek Schofield gave delegates a comprehensive whistle-stop tour of the 20th century revival, which helped to explain and remind everyone what we do and why. Sean Goddard and Robert Moir presented on evolving folk dance traditions from the past and present – the Morpeth Rant and Playford dances respectively.
As you can see, we packed a lot of content into the day. There was an excellent mix of delegates, of all ages and from different sectors of the social folk dance scene – including clubs, festivals, ceilidh series, regular dances, community, health and educational settings.
Importantly, there was a great deal of positivity and goodwill which contributed to a buzzing and friendly atmosphere. Most delegates agreed that EFDSS should run a similar conference in the future, so that’s something we will be thinking about.
In creating the conference programme, we also have an eye to the development of EFDSS caller training in the future. We have heard from many people that there is a need for more of this, and we believe that many of the topics covered in the conference would be relevant and helpful as part of caller training programmes. We asked delegates for their thoughts on this subject and were glad to receive many good ideas, recommendations and generous offers of help.
We are still at the 'ideas stage' with these plans, gathering people's thoughts and starting to consider the best models and potential partnerships for delivering and funding.
If you have any thoughts on this subject, please do get in touch by emailing: [email protected] For photographs and a short film of the conference, visit www.efdss.org/steps-for-success
