Hi everyone,
I emailed Mind as we decided to collect for them on Thursday. We can have some collection tins if I send them a form. However the crawl is tomorrow so they're not going to be able to send anything in the post.
Is there anyone who can go to their office tomorrow before the crawl? Mind, 15-19 Broadway, Stratford, London E15 4BQ
If not I suggest we just use our tankards and make sure we all know who Mind are and what they do in case punters ask us why they should donate.
Ffion x
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs - caneuongwerin.wordpress.com<http://caneuongwerin.wordpress.com>
Hi all
I had a less than ideal response from pubs yesterday with all saying they
would be too busy and having tried to get to the bar on a Monday am
inclined to believe them, pubs that tentatively agreed and I think we can
realistically dance in (in proposed order):
The Counting House
Jamaican Wine Bar
The Windsor
Draft House Seething
Hung Drawn and Quatered
Walrus and Carpenter
The Monument
This is technically enough but with no back up. The other usuals either
said no or are tiny.
Does anyone know of any other big pubs anywhere between Monument and
Aldgate that might be worth trying? Or have any other ideas?
Best
Katherine
P.S I had several recommending/asking me to also email? Not come across
that before!
Hello all,
Thanks for all who came yesterday. We've got Ellie (tentatively) all the way through the dance, which is great, hopefully we can work on getting her more sure of where she's going and then dancing out!
We also did some good work on Westerhope, and I'm happy that it is ready for C# festive gathering, with also an outing on the crawl before.
Special mention for the stepping, this was really solid, no speeding up and stylistically all coming together - this makes me very happy!
As I mentioned in practice yesterday, I would like to stick with last year's set of dancers as the main set for DERT. I think it's the strongest group of people to put out in the competition, especially as we're so used to dancing out together.
Unlike last year I really want to push for a different spotlight set - also meaning other people are learning Piccadilly. Obviously we are a little limited by tumblers, but I am planning on doing some work on this, probably in the new year now! I will be talking to people about the spotlight asap.
Traditional - just trying to establish what's happening with this. I think we can have an entirely separate trad set from the main, which would be great. Not only does this give everyone something to aim for on the day it also keeps everyone improving in the weeks running up to DERT. I will announce the team asap.
DATES FOR THE DIARY
Hannah please put the following dates on the sign up sheet for crawls, I'll fill in anyone from the doodle.
January 19th (just main set, potentially shorter than normal)
January 25th
February 1st
February 15th
March 8th
March 15th
Day practices: 21st Jan and 11th March for the main set. As mentioned yeterday the focus would be for the main set but spotlight members would be encouraged to come along if possible, even if it was for half a day.
Hannah can you contact the church re. using it on these days. As it is a Sunday we might be better to use Laura's hall if that is available?
ATM we have no musician for crawls, for those in the loop on facebook did any of them seem particularly good?
For those of you going to Martin and Hannah's birthday have fun, dance well, show those guys how awesome we are!
I'm not here next Monday, Ffion if you could lead the practice I'll send you a separate email.
Thanks all 😊
Becky
Hi everyone
Thanks for such an enjoyable crawl last night and especially to
Laura - for inventing a new and compact route with great pubs
Becky - for organising the dancing so efficiently as usual
Nikki - for playing so beautifully for us at such short notice
Various partners - for their loyal and vocal support
Everyone - for their fine dancing and brilliant collecting skills
Add to that a festive atmosphere, mulled cider, enthusiastic punters... What's not to like? Oh yes - and Martin.
So to the important bit: how much money did we collect?
Answers on a postcard, or direct reply if you prefer. All will be revealed on Monday. The winner will receive all the foreign coins that could not count towards the total.
Have a great weekend, especially Ffion.
S x
Sent from my iPad
Hi everyone
Great day yesterday. Well done everyone.
I believe it's the festive choral evensong at St. Michael's at 6 pm. I hope to get there because it would be quite nice for us to be represented. If anyone else would like to join me, that would be fantastic, but I realise that most are at work and will probably prefer food/respite before the practice.
So far we have the following guesses re Thursday's crawl collection. Any more? Wouldn't want you to miss out on the valueless cash prize.
Emma £87.63 +
Laura £110.34
Rachel-anne £149.13
Rachel £164.03
Ffion £177.77
Hannah £182.33 +
Anna - great idea to offer to buy our collection of euro coins. ATM we have 34.85. Would you still like to have them? I can bring them tonight if so.
S x
Sent from my iPad
Hi All,
Please find the draft minutes from Monday's AGM attached. If you have any
comments on anything that I have missed or is incorrect, please let me know
by 1st December.
Thanks to everyone for signing up to things as well on Monday - looks like
there are a couple more things for us to go to now! I'm away on Monday, but
please don't forget to check the sign-up sheet if you haven't already. Our
next event will be Mabel Day on 3rd December. Transport options for this
are the Oxford Tube - takes about 2hrs and costs £14/£18
(discounted/undiscounted) or the train from Marylebone is £16.95 with
either a groupsave or a railcard discount or £25 without a discount and
only takes 1hr. We can discuss these when I'm back on 27th and book tickets
that week as the prices won't change. If you have any strong preferences
please let me know. I personally feel that the train would be the better
option, especially as we'd all get home earlier! Will look into times in
more detail before 27th Nov.
Thanks,
Hannah
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
Hello all,
1. clog
2. dert crawls and practices
3. c# festive gathering
Absentees I have for tonight are: Ffion, Hannorah and Rachel - is there anyone else?
1. Please turn up at 7.15 for clog runthrough, we may have to include this at c# in a couple of weeks so please consider if you're happy with that.
2. I'm looking at dates for pre DERT crawls and day practices:
Day practices I'm thinking 21st January and 11th March, plus one more once I have decided on the trad set.
Crawls: 25th Jan, 1st Feb, 15th Feb, 8th March, 15th March. Ideally we'll also have a 19th March crawl but only for the main set so it may well be shorter than normal.
Please consider those dates and let me know if you can or can't make it.
3. For C# I'm currently not sure how long we need to dance for - if we can do 3 sets I'd like the following to happen:
Jubilee:
1. Emma
2. Hannah TD
3. Laura W
4/. Hannorah
5. Rachel-Anne
Westerhope
1. Becky
2. Hannorah
3. Hannah
4. Emma
5. Rachel-Anne
6. Laura W
Piccadilly
1. Ffion (if you can get back in time)
2. Laura W
3. Becky
4. Hannah
5. Rachel-Anne
If anyone is unhappy with any of that please let me know, or if there is anything you'd particularly like to work on in the next 2 weeks.
Our of this I'd like to work on Westerhope with those people (if someone can cover 2) and Piccadilly with Katherine covering 1.
As well as this we'll go through Jubilee with Ellie to get her a bit further.
I'd also like to do some tumbling work if people feel up to it, I'm planning to do this again later in the year/next year so if you miss tonight there'll be another opportunity.
See you later!
Becky
Hi All,
We are officially registered for DERT! woop woop!
Apologies for taking a while to get round to sending this... As you
hopefully know we are crawling around Islington-ish this evening starting
in the Angelic - please be ready to dance by 1930.
Our next thing is Mabel Day! Sunday 3rd - the Blenheim opens at 1100 with
dancing starting at 1200. I propose to aim to be there around 1130 (but
please make sure you are there by 1145 latest). More info on the day here:
Transport - we have decided to take the train from Marylebone station as it
takes much less time than the bus and only costs a tiny bit more. For
trains I have Laura, Sue, Anna and myself. Please get to Marylebone for
0945 as we will be on the 1005 train. I will buy group save tickets for us.
As there are four of us, if anyone thinks they might need/want to rush
off/stay really late, I can book 3 of us on the group save and one on a
rail card - please let me know by Saturday 5pm if you think that you might
not want to travel back with us otherwise I'll just put all four on the
group save. (sory Laura, I think you're stuck on a group save regardless)
Trains back to London are every half hour, so nice and easy!
For the rest of us, I have Emma and Hannah TD making their way from
Coventry and Hannorah driving. Kate are you driving as well (seem to
remember you did last year)?
Sign-up sheet as always is below. Please check over it - still need a few
more people to fill in their availability for our December Crawl -
approaching fast now!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
See you all later/Sunday/Monday.
Hannah
Hello all,
Please can the following people look at the dert crawls doodle and respond!
Hannorah, Rachel-Anne, Hannah TD
Rachel - I know you might still be in the decision making process with Dan, Arthur, moving house et al, but it would be good to have an idea soon so I can start making decisions re. teams, crawl dates and day practices etc.
Kate - I know you said you generally will struggle for availability. Are you basically a no for the crawls?
https://doodle.com/poll/rzefyddmxgspsyai
To all:
Please look at this doodle for availability of day practices. Ideally this is for the whole day (10-4 or something) but we have done later start - later finish etc. depending on availability. If you basically have the day free please mark as a yes, if you know you can only do certain times please leave a comment.
https://doodle.com/poll/24rbvr66fhzttrny
[https://doodle.com/graphics/static/facebookSharingThumbnail.png]<https://doodle.com/poll/24rbvr66fhzttrny>
Doodle: Day practices<https://doodle.com/poll/24rbvr66fhzttrny>
Doodle radically simplifies the process of scheduling events, meetings, appointments, etc. Herding cats gets 2x faster with Doodle. For free!
doodle.com
Thanks all!
Becky
Hello all,
Thanks for a good practice last night. I think now that people are engaging their brain a bit more Jubilee is already starting to look a lot smarter and hopefully highlighting bits I simply haven't told newer members!
Westerhope seemed to be coming along nicely with people having a go at new positions (correct me if I'm wrong) but I have these people learning these positions:
Hannorah 1 (know you had to swap back to 2)
Rachel 2
Hannah TD 3
Emma 4
Anna 5
Some good running through ready for the crawl of Piccadilly as I know we haven't always had the numbers to run through it very well.
Remember this Thursday to meet at The Angelic (N1 0RJ) ready to start dancing at 7.30. If you're going to be late please message before 7.30 so we know if we can do the first dance.
Hannah should be arranging transport to Mabel Day - for those I don't see on Thursday, have a lovely day! As there aren't huge numbers of you is shouldn't be that complex on the day - Hannah will be in charge so listen to her when it comes to when to dance/eat/drink up etc 😊
Next week we will be prepping for the festive gathering at C#. I'm actually not here the practice after so i will leave instructions as to what to work on ready for the dance out.
Thanks all!
Becky
Hello all,
Please turn up 15 mins early for clog runthrough (I should actually be there this time!)
We will be running through dances for crawl this Thursday (Nikki is coming back to play for us so we're safe there) and Mabel Day on Sunday.
Thursday we will be doing Jubilee and Piccadilly so we'll go through both of those. Mabel Day will just be jubilee, but we will run through these with the right people for Sunday.
I assume we'll have Rosie again who we'll continue to run through Jubilee. She's used to stepping as she's done clog in the past but it would be great if someone could run her through the different steps (4s, 8s, westerhope, break step, jonty etc.) as I won't necessarily have time to do this at the start.
Thank you to those who have filled in the doodle poll re. the run up to DERT crawls. Here is a reminder to everyone else to please also fill it in.
https://doodle.com/poll/rzefyddmxgspsyai#table
[https://doodle.com/graphics/static/facebookSharingThumbnail.png]<https://doodle.com/poll/rzefyddmxgspsyai#table>
Doodle: Dert Crawls<https://doodle.com/poll/rzefyddmxgspsyai#table>
We would do one every two weeks, don't panic!
doodle.com
Thanks all 😊
Becky
Hello all,
Kate's struggling time-wise with the new job so won't be able to make this Monday (27th) or Monday 18th December - is anyone able to cover this? (In particular wondering about Martin as then we don't lose a dancer).
***we currently have no musician for Thursday's crawl***
Neither Kate nor Martin are free so if we want to crawl we need someone else. Has anyone got any ideas? Ffion I don't know if Pat would be up for it?
Going forward I think we need to look for someone who can provide a reasonable amount of cover for Kate as it looks like the reality is that long hours are going to make it very difficult for her to be in London in time for all practices and crawls. Martin does a great job of covering but ideally we need someone who wants to be part of the team. We'll discuss this on Monday - rack your brains if you have any bright ideas!
Thanks,
Becky
Hello all,
This is a bit strange but someone who phone number ends 08 will have just
received an text verification code when I tried to sign in to the ravens
email account. If it's your number can you text me the code? Not sure who
it would be Hannah, Ffion?
My number is 07912508397
Thanks!
Rachel-anne x
Hello all,
Laura S and Ted are having their album launch this Saturday in Heath Street Baptist Church near Hampstead. Starts at 7.30!
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Heath+Street+Baptist+Church/@51.5579327…
Sadly I'm away so won't make it but they always do a good performance so worth going to if you can!
Thanks,
Becky
Hello all,
Just a quick summary of tomorrow!
1. Absences: Hannah N, Jo, Rachel - is there anyone else?
2. Please turn up 15 minutes early for clog so we can run through it.
3. We have Libby coming along to sit in on our practice - she came to a crawl fairly recently and is researching how rapper dancing has evolved. Basically she just wants to watch how a practice works, as well as maybe talk to people as to how they got in to rapper etc.
4. We also have a new member coming.
--> due to 4 and 5 it might be an odd practice. We can hopefully do some hardcore work on Jubilee as we were discussing neatening that up, it depends a little on how quickly she takes to it, as well as running through Piccadilly and Westerhope.
Hannah TD please remember to bring the swords! And the same to whoever has the spares! Also Hannah TD if you could transfer the £25 for shoes that would be great.
Thanks all,
Becky
Hello to those who have had their shoes resined.
You'll be pleased to know these are done and ready for Monday. They came to £25 each (normally £30), and having forked out for 6 at once I'd really appreciate if people could transfer the money to me speedily!?
Shoes belonged to: Emma, Hannah TD, Hannah N, Sue, Anna (and me)
My account info is:
Rebecca Such
Lloyds Bank
12647860
30-97-70
If you could ping me a message to say you've transferred the money, just so I know, that'd be great. Should £25 be too big a chunk in one go please let me know and we can arrange something.
Thanks all!
Becky
p.s. going forward I think the guy will generally only charge us £25 so if anyone else needs it doing it should still be for that rather than £30 (Hannhorah I know you were interested so you can give them to me to get done at some point if you want, although your stepping is so loud I'm still not convinced you need it!)
Hello all,
Thank you for everyone's attendance and contributions yesterday, I think we got through lots of stuff! Those who weren't there please look to Hannah's minutes which should appear in the next week once she's had a chance to make sense of them!
I just wanted to have my attitude to choosing people for DERT made really clear so everyone is on the same page - if you have any thoughts or questions please do just get in touch!
The main DERT set is always chosen to best represent the team - ideally we have the best steppers and dancers who can show off our style and what we can achieve when we really put our minds to it! At the same time it relies a lot on each individual being able to contribute the necessary time and energy in advance, so as to best prepare. That means coming to the vast majority, if not every, practice from January to March, all of the crawls and all of the day practices (we have at least 2 plus a Westerhope one). Options for crawls and day practices will come soon. I know it's a long time in advance but it does help me in my decision making.
Other than the main set we are more flexible. As mentioned we will, if possible, have a different Spotlight set/some different doing Piccadilly. This would still only contain people that were confident enough to perform it well and who I thought could represent us properly, but it doesn't need the same intense time commitment in advance. Trad would ideally be performed by an entirely different set to the main set to allow practices to go ahead - I know Hannah being in both was tricky for both the Westerhope side trying to practice and for Hannah herself! Westerhope isn't as technically hard as Piccadilly, but it still needs alot of work to make it look good, if we were continuing it exactly the same as before practice time could also be spent on Jubilee and Piccadilly by the same people, if the trad leader thought Westerhope was good enough to do so.
Showcase - few ideas of what we could do but an emphasis on everone being on stage. Which I think is a great idea, it looked fab when we did it this time, although again it did take having everyone there on multiple practices to make it work.
More generally I know there are various people who want to learn new positions. I'm keen for this to happen as well, partly so everyone continues to enjoy dancing! At the same time I think we can all say that Jubilee is not up to scratch at the moment so before progressing people I'd like to take some time to get it neat again. It's meant to be as tight, energetic and precise as Piccadilly which it just isn't at the moment, so I will try and tackle that. I think as was said yesterday older members have got complacent as to how to perform it because we've done it for so long, and newer people probably haven't been given some of the finer details yet because we've been focussing on getting it out.
This is a video of Jubilee from DERT 2014 where we came 3rd in the Championship. It's not perfect but I think it gives a reasonable impression of the energy and snappiness we want.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlCXZaYGzI
[https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVP.dJOoamgbdASduoovrm0x8wEsDh&pid=Api]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlCXZaYGzI>
Tower Ravens Rapper - DERT 2014<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlCXZaYGzI>
DERT 2014 Tower Ravens Rapper
www.youtube.com
I hope that all seems reasonable. If there are any questions or points which you disagree with me just give me an email/come and chat at practice. 2017 I think everyone would agree there was a wonderful team feeling at DERT, not everyone was dancing, but the support spectators gave was amazing, as a dancer it was so uplifting to look out and see everyone smiling and cheering!
Becky xx
Hello all!
Big well done for today, I got the impression we went down really well. Special thanks to Westerhope team, I thought we did a really good job on not a lot of practice :-)
Agm tomorrow. Please bring diaries as a good opportunity to settle some future events.
I have cups and serviettes, if you want cutlery or plates bring your own. I also have gin, if someone can provide tonic we're sitting pretty.
See you ready to start at 7.30.
B xx
Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone
Hey guys,
I wanted to come along tonight to do this in person but doing that would
have locked Mike out of the house, which seems a little cruel. I am leaving
london, so I guess my short term haitus from the ravens is actually a long
term one :( It has been absolutely lovely being part of the team, and I've
really enjoyed it. Thank you so much for a whole lot of excellent memories.
I'm trying to set up a mixed side in Oxford, so maybe I will see you around
at DERT in the future,
I still have some kit, can I have an adress to send it to?
Bye for now!
--
Reesha Dyer
*Check out my new album at https://reeshadyer.bandcamp.com/
<https://reeshadyer.bandcamp.com/>*
*Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/reesha-dyer
<http://www.patreon.com/reesha>*
*Youtube: www.youtube.com/reesha1 <http://www.youtube.com/reesha1>*
Hi all,
One of my tasks from last year's AGM was to get new business cards printed. 1.5 days ahead of the next AGM I've made this.
I couldn't use the version Lindsey made so this is a little different. It's got a wide gap around the edges for the bleed when printing.
Let me know if you spot any issues.
Thanks,
Ffion
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs - caneuongwerin.wordpress.com<http://caneuongwerin.wordpress.com>
Hello all,
1. Sunday
2. Shoes
3. AGM
1.Just to confirm on Sunday what's going on. So Knight's Templar near Chancery lane by 12.15 at the latest. It's a bit Wetherspoons that will probably look a bit shut up, but it will be open!
Planning on dancing all three dances at the following positions - I have heard rumours that Whip The Cat are leaving at 3 so we might only do two dances, in which case we would drop Westerhope as it is the least confident.
Jubilee:
1. Emma
2. Hannah TD
3. Hannah N
4. Laura W
5. Ffion
Westerhope:
1. Becky
2. Rachel
3. Hannah
4. Emma
5. Ffion
6. Laura W
Piccadilly:
1. Ffion
2. Laura W
3. Becky
4. Hannah
5. Rachel
Apologies for those of you doing all three dances! If we are doing Westerhope we will most likely try and find somewhere to run through. It sounds ridiculous but their toilets are bloody huge so we might even manage it down there.
2. Shoes!
Next week we should have all the shoes to assemble for adding resin to. I already have mine and Annas, and Hannah N is giving me hers on Sunday. Emma is going to meet me at the cobblers with hers and Hannah TDs. Hannorah I think you're the only other person that needs it doing, if so can you bring them on Monday?
Obviously, if there is anyone else who wants them doing that is fine but I need them either Sunday or Monday!
3. Small note re. AGM. Please be there by 7.30. We won't be clogging as there's no point clearing the space and we won't have rapper shoes with us, so if we can aim to start at 7.30 we have a chance of finishing sooner. I'll bring plates and cups with me for everyone to use for snackage and drinkage. The AGM is a chance for everyone to have their say but we do have to get through quite a lot, please take a minute to look at the agenda to see if there is anything you specifically want to talk about. FYI to people who haven't been before, we bring booze, it makes the evening go by smoother!
See you soon,
Becky
Hi All,
Coming up this week:
Thrales Day! 12th November - pub opens at 12, dancing from 1230 until
around half four. Please be there ready to go by 1215.
AGM - Monday 13th November. Feel free to bring snacks and drinks. Will
email the agenda again shortly (along with last year's minutes), if there
is anything that you would like added, please let me know by Monday 12pm.
Sign-ups - the next crawl is 30th November. We could do with a few more
people - so please check your diary if you are a maybe and especially if
you are a no-reply... Don't forget to check the rest of the sheet as well
while you are there! (link below)
Updates to 2018 events
Silver Flame Crawl (17th Feb) - this is likely to be in Warwick/Stratford
on Avon. Please could you fill yourselves in for this one, as at the minute
we haven't had many responses.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
Thanks,
Hannah
Hi All,
Though you might appreciate this from Anne at the Dance around the World
Festival.
Hannah
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anne Leach <danceoffice(a)waitrose.com>
Date: 2 November 2017 at 19:37
Subject: [TR Committee] Thank you Tower Ravens!
To: Tower Ravens <info(a)towerravens.org.uk>
Dear Hannah,
Thank you so much for Tower Ravens’ wonderful performance at Dance Around
Dance Around The World 2017. We were all quite overwhelmed by the
outstandingly high quality of all the performances at the event. The
audience was certainly galvanised by Tower Ravens’ beautiful, energised and
vibrant performance. We heard many appreciative compliments to the flowing
grace of your speed and precision. Your obvious enjoyment was infectious.
We realise just how much work goes into preparing performances and we are
very appreciative.
We know that changing was particularly cramped this year and we are very
grateful for the gracious and accommodating way your group worked round the
challenges.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you personally for being our
contact and helping us with the arrangements leading up to the event.
It was such a pleasure to welcome Tower Ravens to Dance Around The World
this year. Would you please pass on our thanks and appreciation to everyone
involved.
With best wishes,
Anne
_______________________________________________
Tower Ravens Committee and Info List
info(a)towerravens.org.uk
