Hello everyone,
Thanks for a great final practice last night. I'm feeling really proud and know that we'll perform well, both teams have transformed their dances and are looking confident. Thanks for all the hard work from everyone over the last few months, it takes each individual to make it all come together at the end!
I'm afraid this week might be email heavy as Hannah is trying to organise EGM agenda (voted to have on Monday 8th) and then trying to get us all prepped for DERT this weekend. Please try and keep an eye on them, I'll feel much better if I think you all know where to be at the weekend.
I'll see lots of you on Friday 🙂
Becky xx
Hello,
Last practice before DERT, I think the only absence we have is Clare? Hopefully everyone else can make it for a final run-through the dancing 🙂
7-7.30 is clog (although I might just be at the practice hall and ok to do admin if that helps anyone).
Then focus will be final run throughs of the dancing, working on any last minute stuff so we all feel super confident. For Piccadilly I want to look at tits, as we're not landing in time. I don't know if the music could come down a tad? It's proper revving up in excitement and I'm not sure if that is also speeding it up? It might just be us being slow!
Westerhope I'm not sure what you're focus will be but I'd recommend just picking a couple of things!
KIT - I have an array of tshirts and tights to hand out. I know westerz you're comparing tops and gathering neckers/badges etc. Piccadilly also need to potentially do a temporary swap on kit as we have at least one manky skirt and one manky sash. I'm also needing the sparkle gun! My intention is for none of this to take too long, if you're at rapper early try and get this sorted then.
Showcase we'll run through double jubilee in correct numbers (obviously without Ffion) and probably a bit extra for Paul just so he's got a tiny bit more time to be confident!
Any questions about DERT please be in touch, it'd be nice to have them answered before tonight so don't dwell on it too much. We have the times and locations of main competition, but all we know is that trad is from 6 in the evening venue. I know Hannah will be in touch with more of a plan, but for now here is the timetable link https://dert2019.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/DERT2019-Timetable.pdf
See you all later,
Becky
Hi All,
Coming up this week... Piccadilly Crawl! Thursday, Farringdon-ish for the
final crawl before DERT. Watch out for details from Laura.
Otherwise not much else beyond the fact that it is DERT next weekend! I'll
be bringing train tickets for those travelling Friday evening to practice
on Monday, and hopefully will have a few more details for you all by then
as well.
Last week we made £106.56 on the Westerhope crawl and £228.04 on the
Piccadilly! If you're lucky Emma might even provide some graphs!!! ☺
Reminder to please fill in the sign up sheet. The lovely Mabels have
invited us to a day of dancing around Oxford followed by food and a ceilidh
(including dancing the display spot). We can easily get back to London
afterwards (leaving at about 11pm) so shouldn't be any issues on that
front. Otherwise please check diaries for London Folk Festival and Lewes
day of dance.
Also, if you can start filling in the crawls over the next few months - at
least up to Summer that should have us sorted for our pre-festival exploits.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
Have a lovely week and see you soon!
Thanks,
Hannah
Hello all!
Piccadilly set have realised they need some smarter kit to get them through dert. Can people please bring what they have on Monday so we can find some ok stuff from different people.
All to be returned after dert!
Becky xx
Sent from my Huawei Mobile
Never had such a mixed response to asking to dance. Some people more
excited than I've ever seen anyone, others completely horrified by the
thought. Let's see what happens tomorrow and how it affects the graph!
Even though we're not dancing there, suggest we meet at Wetherspoons by
Farringdon Station at 7 to get ready. I'll probably be there earlier to
eat. Leave at 7.25 for 1st dance hopefully in The Coach at 7.30. Unless you
wanna double up with Thrales at the Betsy?
Then some or all of:
The Coach
The Gunmakers
The Clerk and Well
The Craft Beer Company
The Bleeding Heart
The Draft House
26 Furnival Street
The Inn at Court
Ends right by Chancery Lane station.
See you there xx
Hiya,
I'm hoping to narrow down discussion time on Monday so thought I'd raise this stuff now. Any questions let me know, please please read!!! 🙂
Friday - ideally wear kit branded stuff i.e. tshirt/hoody
Saturday - Westerhope need to decide what they're wearing during the day. We've had years where people wear kit, years where people wear ravens branded stuff but not kit and then change. Piccadilly obviously have to wear kit! We haven't had the info yet but, if there is time, we may well be able to swing past the hotel to grab kit if that was helpful.
ALSO:
** we need videos and photos from the day, otherwise we sometimes have very little to show for the day depending on what they have at each venue, I've not heard anything about filming. If you have a phone, or even camera and would like to do this that'd be great, the more people who do it the better!
**please support the dancers during the day. Ravens has always been amazing at this, looking out at excited ravens watching the team dance and responding can really lift your mood and make you smile (I have a very fond memory of looking out and seeing Emma stood on a chair clapping last year to make sure we could see her!). On the other hand, don't go too wild, it's not intended as a rent-a-crowd.
**Drinking rules: as always I'm going to implement my have one drink before we start to calm nerves. Laura obviously you do whatever you feel necessary at this point! I will probably also suggest another drink in the afternoon, but I want to avoid drinking too much until we're done! Westerhopers obviously you can drink a bit during the day but please be sensible, it'd be awful to have worked so hard only to go wrong due to a drink too many during the day. During the evening we can go wild! Again, hoping a schedule appears soon so that we can judge when we will be dancing both the trad and the showcase.
**Lunch: the area doesn't have anywhere we can go specifically, although the venues generally do food and snacks. Depending where we are at lunch (near the Cumberland) we're near Byker where there is a big morrisons, greggs and more. If we're not there I might suggest picking something up on route to make sure there is something we want and that we can get it in time.
**Post-lunch and pre-trad dancing. Newcastle has many pubs that are happy to have rapper but it's a match day so we might really struggle, especially at lunch time. Again it all depends on location and timings as what will be available, but we'll try!
Thanks all - you must have earned some sort of snack for reading this right?
Becky xx
Hi all,
We have one last practice before DERT - we'll go over the two competition dances as well as joint jubilee. But it's also a good chance to check on kit (I'll be distributing new tights and tshirts and I know westerhopers are bring their tops in to check.
Plan for double jubilee:
1. Rachel/ Emma
2. Tori/ Jo
3. Hannah N/ Hannah TD
4. Ellie/ Hannorah (or Laura- decide on the night)
5. Ffion/Katherine
These are the two sets, and ideally Paul is going in with the set with Rachel at 1 as that is the 3 and 4 he has practiced with.
Tights
Piccadilly set: 4x small 2x medium (1x medium for Sue, not sure who the other was for??)
Westerhope: 5x small (guessing you're a small Rachel?) and 1x medium
This is what I will be buying, if that doesn't sound right let me know by Friday night.
I'm hoping by Monday we will have a schedule so that we can have an actual plan. As yet we only know where we are on Friday and Saturday night!
Any questions about DERT please either message ahead or raise them on Monday.
See you soon!
Becky
Ok. Taking on board various suggestions we now have this:
Tower Ravens hail from deepest darkest London, where we practise in the shadow of the Tower of London. Accompanied by our wayward Beefeater we perform rapper sword dancing with speed and attitude. Most noted for our energy, agility and love of pubs we're looking forward to hitting the streets of Whitby hard! Look out for us at our workshops, dance spots and in the many drinking establishments Whitby has to offer.
Drinking establishments could be: bars, hostelry's, public houses?? But I think it's ok.
Currently struggling to access Sidmouth photos but will give it a go on my lunch break. Any other ideas let me know!
Thanks,
Becky
Hello all,
Only two more practices until DERT! (How did that happen!?)
Absences: Clare, Fliss, Rachel - I think that's it? In light of this I think if Rachel-Anne is covering 5 in Westerhope?
Clog at 7 as per usual.
Hopefully we both had good crawls which can highlight things to work on. From a Piccadilly point of view I'd like to film a dance right at the start and then go from there, Jo I don't know if you want to do the same with Westerhope?
Also from Piccadilly I want to practice with Paul and Sue in the set, maybe with limiting our space so they can think about where to move etc. when we're tight on space.
KIT: I will be buying new tshirts and tights for the Piccadilly set (so they are all the same black) Westerhope do you have your tops? Can someone buy them all? Please think about what size you would normally have so this is decided before practice.
Thanks,
Becky
Hi All,
Funnily enough for a dance team, it's all about the dancing!
Sounds like you all had a lovely time dancing on Sunday, even if the second
pub weren't expecting you... not sure what happened there, though all my
communications were with Hen & Chickens, so perhaps they missed passing
confirmation on...
Coming up this week: *Westerhope Crawl* on Thursday around Angel starting
at 1915 in the Angel, *Piccadilly crawl* on Friday around Kentish Town,
start location TBC...
I've now added the crawls up until the end of the year - the July one I've
made a week earlier as otherwise it would be the day before Warwick and I
have a feeling that both Martin and Will are busy for the April one (may
have got my dates wrong though!) so we need to adjust that one.
While you are on the sign-up sheet,* St Albans is a No *- not much
enthusiasm for it, and it is would be right in the middle of a run of
things.
*Please, please please look at 7th September London Folk Festival at C#
House and Lewes Day of Dance 12th October.*
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
If you had any further suggestions on Becky's *Whitby bio,* please feed
that back asap as we need to send it off. We will also be letting them know
numbers by the end of May, so might be time to think about whether you are
bringing a plus 1 or not (and adding it to the sign-up sheet if so...)
*Camden Clog* are holding their workshop day on Saturday, so if you fancy a
day learning a clog dance, then C# is the place to be...
https://www.cecilsharphouse.org/component/content/article/22-csh-site/csh-e…
Have a lovely week of dancing! 💃
Thanks,
Hannah
