I've been pondering on what makes a traditional dance, and I've come to the conclusion that it's any dance that has been performed over a long period of time and is performed by amateurs as well as professionals. (in my book, it isn't a traditional dance until it has been adopted by the community and carried on by it). For example, I would define ( Read more... )

“CORFE MULLEN”

Corfe Mullen is old English for ‘the mill in the gap’.

Many of the figures in this dance are inspired by the movement of mill machinery: the water wheel rotating, the cogs interacting, the movement of mill stones turning against each other.  (I originally named the figures with names like ‘cogs’ but eventually decided that ( Read more... )

Who else is planning on performing in the Redemption cabaret?  I already know of at least two other definite acts, and that's just people I've spoken to in the last couple of weeks.

I'm starting to work on a poi routine (but I need to see if my eldest son can splice the exact music I need from my CD as there's a long intro that isn't relevant).

katlinel  ( Read more... )

I'm not very keen on Steve Knightly, even though he's a very talented singer - and here's one reason why.  He edits history, in his songs.
I once went to a workshop he was running and he expressed surprise that many people had gone to visit a particular church yard because he'd added a line to a song saying that a particular person was buried there ( Read more... )

We'll have a group of Slovakian dancers staying with us this weekend.

It's Wimborne Folk Festival 
this weekend, an absolutely wonderful weekend for dancers.  There will be dancing all over the town all weekend and concerts and ceilidhs in the evening.

It's on our doorstep and we've been going for decades.

Sadly, I'll be unable to dance this weekend ( Read more... )