Firstish practice
We had our first unofficial practice for Anonymous Morris last night. Official practice starts next week, but we wanted to run at least a few dancers through the basics beforehand.
So, Henry, myself, Bev the Banjo, Cu_Sith, the Redhead and Alex all met up on Poole Quay, found a relatively quiet spot and proceeded to go through Shropshire Morris and Valiant Soldier. Henry's a good teacher, and he has the additional asset of bags of energy and a voice to rival Brian Blessed.
It went very well. We managed to cover both dances in the course of two hours and the dancers (two with zero Morris experience and one with only a little) learnt very fast. We acquired an audience in the form of a homeless ex-Marine, but he clapped in all the right places, so I bought him a drink so he could come back to the pub with us and relax indoors for a little while.
Cu_Sith, the Redhead and I will be at Swanage Folk Festival tomorrow, to hand out flyers to all and sundry. I also get to collect more sticks from Alf of Bourne River Morris who's been cutting them for us.
Here's to next Thursday and the real thing!
(I'm greatly reminded of my first Redemption. There's nothing like jumping in at the deep end. The first con committee I was ever on, I was chair. In that sort of situation, you learn fast. You ask questions of everyone who knows more than you do and you listen to what they have to say. In the case of Border Morris, you learn the history, you find people who know the dances, you watch, you make notes, you work out what music will be suitable and why. You find the venue, do the accounts, recruit the members, organise publicity, get the web site sorted out. Like a convention, it's partly about finding the people. I can already see where people are fitting in. I'm the researcher and treasurer. I'm band leader at present, but will probably pass that task on when someone more suited appears. Henry is the teacher. Alex is the web expert - and rapidly learning what he didn't know already. Cu_Sith has a gift for recruiting people. What I still need is someone who likes sewing a lot. The costumes won't be that difficult to make, but it helps if they all end up looking roughly similar.)
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So, Henry, myself, Bev the Banjo, Cu_Sith, the Redhead and Alex all met up on Poole Quay, found a relatively quiet spot and proceeded to go through Shropshire Morris and Valiant Soldier. Henry's a good teacher, and he has the additional asset of bags of energy and a voice to rival Brian Blessed.
It went very well. We managed to cover both dances in the course of two hours and the dancers (two with zero Morris experience and one with only a little) learnt very fast. We acquired an audience in the form of a homeless ex-Marine, but he clapped in all the right places, so I bought him a drink so he could come back to the pub with us and relax indoors for a little while.
Cu_Sith, the Redhead and I will be at Swanage Folk Festival tomorrow, to hand out flyers to all and sundry. I also get to collect more sticks from Alf of Bourne River Morris who's been cutting them for us.
Here's to next Thursday and the real thing!
(I'm greatly reminded of my first Redemption. There's nothing like jumping in at the deep end. The first con committee I was ever on, I was chair. In that sort of situation, you learn fast. You ask questions of everyone who knows more than you do and you listen to what they have to say. In the case of Border Morris, you learn the history, you find people who know the dances, you watch, you make notes, you work out what music will be suitable and why. You find the venue, do the accounts, recruit the members, organise publicity, get the web site sorted out. Like a convention, it's partly about finding the people. I can already see where people are fitting in. I'm the researcher and treasurer. I'm band leader at present, but will probably pass that task on when someone more suited appears. Henry is the teacher. Alex is the web expert - and rapidly learning what he didn't know already. Cu_Sith has a gift for recruiting people. What I still need is someone who likes sewing a lot. The costumes won't be that difficult to make, but it helps if they all end up looking roughly similar.)
This entry was originally posted on Dreamwidth where it has
comments.