Hello all,
I have realised that Laura changed the date for her crawl organisation to
last week. This means we need a new volunteer to organise the crawl on the
26th.
Upcoming crawls are in Waterloo and Farringdon, so as long as you can do
somewhere else than there, excellent.
I would vaguely suggest the following areas, as we've not been for a while
or at all:
- Oxford street/soho
- Covent garden/7 Dials
- Aldgate
- Victoria
Let me know as soon as possible if you definitely can or can't organise.
Lindsey
Just spotted this on facebook...
DERTyPremierChampionshipOpenHeage WindmillersWhip the Cat PWhip the Cat CMedlock RapperHorizon HellbilliesStar and Shadow ECSilver FlameLocksided RapperSteelkingzBlack SwanMabel GubbinsDurham UniversityYoung MiscellanySallyportTower RavensRX SwordAgents of R.A.P.P.E.R.ThralesStar and Shadow KMScally RapperNYFTENewcastle KingsmenWarwickThrales Veterans (V)Stone MonkeyMons MegJockeyGaorsachCrook MorrisMaltby PhoenixSheffield SteelPocketflyersWardrobe OutlawsS/M Silverbacks (V)Heage WindmillersNYFTE
Ffion x
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs - caneuongwerin.wordpress.com
Thank you for everyone who came along last night!
We made good progress getting Jo, Reesha and Kate through some more of the new dance figures and Sinead pressed on with Westerhope, including several figures involving six people!
Well done on all the work on stepping and smiling, I really though the Westerhope an double stepping was coming along well :)
We will be booking the train to DERT this week, I'll be in touch about prices, although I think Sue and I will be discussing if the team can cover costs.
See you next week.
Becky x
Hi All
My friend is a prison warden at HMP Bovingdon near Hemel Hempstead.
She's the Diversity Officer & responsible for organising cultural activities for prisoners.
On 17th March she's organising a St Patrick's Day event, she's got an Irish historian, but would like some Irish musicians (or non-Irish musicians playing Irish music). They can only cover expenses, rather than pay a fee. She says there'll be PR ops (!!) but moreover I guess it's an exercise in civic duty.
Does anyone know any musicians who could help?
Cheers
H
Sent from my iPhone
Hi All
If I don't come tonight, is there anyone else who's learning 4 in the new dance who can fill in for me?
I've developed a cold over the weekend & whilst I'd normally press on & come anyway, I have a pitch & a number of other important meetings at work this week, so would prefer to go home & get well.
If I don't hear back from another number 4 I'll assume I'm needed.
Thanks
H
Sent from my iPhone
Hello all,
Couple of things I need an urgent response from people on, please give me replies by next Monday's practice at the very latest!
1. North Wood day of dance
2.Trains to DERT
3. Sewing days
4. Sandwich folk festival
1. 9th of May -North Wood Day of Dance
We went to this last year and had a really fun day dancing out with other morris sides for the day. We start and finish in Croydon with a coach to take us around the country pubs. Due to me being somewhat lax we need to respond very quickly if we do have a side to dance so please let me know!
2. Trains to DERT:
Ken and I are organising a bulk ticket for getting to DERT. There is a 1.30 train which most people seem happy with. If you are wanting a ticket for this time on the Friday and your name doesn't appear in the following list email me by Monday or you will not be getting a group ticket.
Becky, Ffion, Katherine, Jo, Laura, Sinead, Janet, Hannorah
Maybes are Kate and Reesha, let me know by Monday please :)
3. At the AGM we decided that rather than have one person do all the sewing that we would have sewing days to try and do bulk amounts of kit for people. Due to lots of lovely new people we have quite a lot of kit to make and currently poor Sue is trying to do it all plus treasurer stuff and it's generally just getting daft. As long as you have the most basic knowledge of sewing you can help- even if it's cutting out it's all useful!
So: please consider the following dates: 1st, 22nd. These are Sundays as I figure this makes most people free in comparison. I've also staggered them away from the all day practices so that there isn't too crazy a rapper weekend!
Sue are you free for these dates? Or are there any you'd prefer? I feel we need you to oversee it all so we get it right!
Not sure where this'll happen yet- probably someone's house.
We will further this at next week's practice.
4. Sandwich folk festival 10th-12th of July. They are looking for a confirmation, we've had very few responses yet, please take a moment to consider if you are free. We can just go for a single day if we want so if you would prefer please state which day next to your name.
Sign up sheet:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
Lastly: If you can't make next weeks practice please email the team address rather than Ffion as she's not there!
Hope yesterdays performances went well, sorry I couldn't be there!
Becky x
Hi all,
Thanks for three tiring but fun evenings of rapper!
Thanks to Laura for organising a great crawl tonight. I though the dances had a good balance of energy and precision and it was nice to dance in open spaces with good floors. The C# punters seemed quite impressed. The whole 'interacting with the audience' thing is certainly making an impression, if not the one we were hoping for - someone near the front of the set in the last pub said "I can't tell if they're looking at me. It feels a bit unnerving." At least we're being noticed!
We made a lot of progress on the new dance on Sunday and I've started to edit the gdrive document with all of the little decisions we made about timings and sword-handling. I'll try snd finish the edits by Monday. If you want to be geeky, take a look here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MxSLGDyWD2HE4MiG92Eneehd0Dvg6QqyBpk…
Unfortunately I can't be at practice next Monday as I'm on holiday/tour. For the new dance please can you teach Jo, Reesha and Kate windmills, fountains and popcorn? I think that will mean that Jo's done all of the figures. Reesha and Kate, which other figures don't you know yet? Sinead will know what she wants to do with Westerhope. If there's time could you also do some work on tumbling? I'd like to start doing a bit of tumbling every week so that everyone on the tumbling 'ladder' does a couple of tumbles they're comfortable with and then a couple of the next step: Tumbling by yourself, tumbling with swords, tumbling in the context of a dance, tumbling the wrong way around (without and with swords) and finally a double wrong way round tumble.
See you all in just under a fortnight!
Ffion x
Hi All
A few times I promised to send round a script for securing pubs for crawls.
This is by no means the only way of asking, & everyone will have their own spiel, this is just vaguely what me & Janet say.
1. Ask to speak to the manager 1st, but in a relaxed smiley way so they don't think you're going to complain. This saves you saying your piece twice - once to bar-person & again to manager.
Only if they say manager isn't around do you say 'maybe you can help me.
2. 'I've got an unusual favour to ask (big smile)...
Me & my friends do a traditional English pub-based dance called rapper.'
(don't mention swords, mention it's 'designed for pubs' early on. Don't go into loads of detail about origins of rapper at this point unless they ask).
3. We go round pubs in different areas of London every few weeks & on xxDAYxx we're in this area. So we just wanted to check that it's OK to pop in here & do a quick dance.
(Say it in a way that suggests you're checking rather than asking permission, as if it's kinda standard for pubs to say yes).
OR for pubs we've been to before...
'you might remember we came in & did a little dance about xxMONTHSxx & got a great reception!'
4. If they ask for more info about what it involves underplay everything apart from how much punters like it...
'Its really easy - we do a really quick dance - about 3-4 mins, all we need is a tiny bit if floor space, & the music turned down for a couple of minutes. And we always get a really good reception from punters'.
5. If they say they don't have enough space we say...
'The dance is designed to be danced in really busy pubs, in tiny spaces. We hardly need any floor space.
We know this pub gets busy, so how about we rock up on the night, & if it's too busy to dance we won't. But if we (us & them) think there's a big enough gap we'll just do a quick one?'
Other tips:
It can be good to show them one of our films, or photos if they want to understand better what it is.
If they ask how many people say - just 5 dancers (I don't even mention musician now unless specifically asked).
Sometimes we say it's 'like Riverdance but even more high-energy - & we always get a really positive response from punters.' (Everyone knows Riverdance!) :-)
We don't mention the collecting unless they ask & we position it as
'We usually do a collection afterwards, so punters can show their appreciation. But if that's a problem we don't have to - mainly we just want to dance.'
If they say they don't have a licence for live music, say they don't need one - this is like a flash mob, no sooner have we started then we're done. (No idea if this is actually true, but if you say it with authority they tend to believe you, unless they're a Wetherspoons or Sam Smiths who have strict directions around this).
If they ask you to leave a written message for the manager, we try & capture the spirit if the spiel in it - just to get them 'excited'! So leave a very quick, 'fun' description of your request as well as contact details.
Also ask if you can call the manager back & when would be a good time.
MAIN POINTS TO GET ACROSS:
Really quick, no hassle for you, really good fun.
Say it like it's not a big ask & they might just believe you! :-)
Sent from my iPhone
Hi guys.
It's very late notice, but I may not be at practice tonight as I am
considering going home sick.
Is there some replacement that can be found or is someone bringing the
speakers again?
N x
Hello all,
I've managed to let an invite slip through the net from North Wood Morris. They have their day of dance on the 9th of May which we joined in with last year. They're based in Croydon and the day would be..well a day of dance! It is mainly a morris based day but it was good fun last year- I believe this was the one with a coach tour but i can't see anything about that on the invite, I'll try and find out. Either way I think we just need to get to and from Croydon on the day.
There is a feast in the evening and we can stay on the Friday or Saturday night although with it being so close I don't know why we would particularly.
If any of you get this before practice please consider the date so I can give them a response ASAP.
Cheers,
Becky
There's a discussion going on at The Nut's Facebook page about how to recruit for a team, but I thought you'd all be interested in what Frank Lee (who is often a DERT judge) has to say about looking like you're having fun! So, remember - shoulders, smiles and fingers. Or, in Sinead's more catchy phrase, teeth, tits and toes :-)
Ffion x
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs - caneuongwerin.wordpress.com
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 08:46:37 -0800
To: 164866403667090(a)groups.facebook.com
From: notification+f62=9zty(a)facebookmail.com
Subject: Re: [The Nut] Does anyone have any tips on recruitment?
FacebookFrank Lee commented on Tom Sennett's post in The NutFrank Lee 6 February 16:46 Just be really good at what you do. Look like you're having fun. It's RAPPER, so don't be stiff and starchy. Get some fun into it and make it look like you're enjoying it. Don't pretend it's dead easy - it needs to look like a challenge, oh yes, and one other thing, make it look like its fun. If the audience isn't stamping and clapping, and cheering at the end, either you're not doing it right, or you're dancing at a Conservative party conference. If they are, recruitment will take care of itself. Mingle with the audience and be approachable, chat to them, don't be hell-bent on getting to the next pub. Make it look like you're having a good time. (Got the message yet? - I'm giving away DERT judge's secrets here for your benefit!) If that lot doesn't work, you might as well give-up I reckon. Oh, and the age thing, the team that got me hooked must have been in their 70s. I was 12. 'Nuff sed.Comment historyEdwin Dyson6 February 14:01Offer to dance at your local ceilidhs in the interval. All team to attend in kit, dance with people and hand out marketing materialFfion Mair6 February 13:25Lots of good suggestions already. I just looked at our current team list to see what recruitment method has been most successful for us. Over half of our members were part of a Morris side or clog team before joining Tower Ravens. Almost half had danced rapper before with another team (mostly university and youth teams). Therefore making yourself known in the folk world is very important – going to festivals and days of dance, being present on social media, getting in local press.
We hold workshops once a year, just after the uni term has started. We once danced at a uni freshers ceilidh to get recruits but it didn’t work (at least not directly). Only one person has ever turned up to a workshop on spec – everyone else has come because they already knew someone in the team so I agree that getting your friends to come along is important, and that having a dedicated beginners day makes them feel welcomed.
We do carry business cards with us on dance outs and get several people saying they’re interested in joining. This has actually never materialised. One person did join us after seeing Thrales dance which, again, shows the value of getting other teams to be your friends!Edwin Dyson6 February 13:11It is Paul, but sadly the most time and labour intensive. Hence talking to people in the pubs on crawls.Paul Davenport6 February 13:10We've done schools work, recruitment drives etc. the thing that works best is word of mouth and one-to-one persuasion.Edwin Dyson6 February 13:06Fiund a local business that's shit hot on twitter etc, ask them to be your sponsor for a nominal sum. Get them to help promote you.View all commentsOriginal postTom Sennett6 February 12:48Does anyone have any tips on recruitment?
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Hello to those coming to Cecil Sharp House next week -
I was thinking - since our main number 3s will not be with us for Tuesday (which means we probably won't be doing a tumble) how about we do the Beadnell dance instead?
The reason I suggest this is because as part of Flo's exhibition there will be a painting based on the Beadnell rapper team. Therefore to do the dance seems apt!
Just a thought...
Laura
Hello all,
Just a reminder that there is a practice this Sunday starting at 2 and carrying on into the early evening.
I would recommend bringing food of some sort, the plan is to stay until around 7 without a specific dinner break and then we can all get home.
The other dates are Saturdays where, for obvious reasons, we can start earlier and leave earlier, I just think it's worth staying a little later since we can't stay until 2.
Everyone is welcome to come to the practice but the focus is very much on bringing people of to speed on the new dance, if you haven't previously worked on the new dance you probably won't get a chance to on Sunday- after this we can hopefully start dancing it out!
See you all on Sunday or Monday,
Becky xx
Hello,
Thanks for a good practice last night. I think we had a total of 14 people! Both dances are starting to look a little tidier and Westerhope is also getting longer :-)
On Sunday we'll work through the 'need to decide' and 'need to perfect' columns on the new dance document (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MxSLGDyWD2HE4MiG92Eneehd0Dvg6QqyBpk…) probably starting at tits and working backwards. We'll save popcorn and tumbling for near the end because I don't want us to get too tired or injured at the beginning of the afternoon. Well, I don't want us to get injured at all if possible! We can also work a bit on the styling of the double stepping.
On Monday we will spend some time making sure Jubilee (or Beadnell - does anyone have a preference?) looks decent for our performance at Cecil Sharp the following day. I'd also like to make sure Jo can get through the new dance as I will be away the following week (16 Feb).
Cheers,
Ffion x
Someone left two silver rings and a watch on the mantlepiece at practice tonight. I've got them and will bring them next week. Let me know if they're yours and you need them back sooner! X
Morning all,
Thanks for a great crawl last night. I think I counted 6 pubs and 9 dances, 3 of which were Westerhope and one of which even had a successful backlock ;-) congratulation to Laura W on her first dance out. There were lots of good comments from the crowds, such as "How do they do that?!", but my favourite was definitely "have you come out of Wolf Hall?"
Here's the video I took of the final Jubilee http://youtu.be/IgPJ3D7exNg. I think it's a good dance so I've made it public. Let me know if you want me to made it private.
Hope you all have great weekends and see you on Monday!
Ffion x
Hello,
A few people have mentioned recently that it's about time we gave the 'new dance' a proper name. For those who don't know, we made a decision at a previous AGM that all of our dances should be named after tube lines, to reinforce the London connection. Here's the full list of lines including some of the comments people have made about them during pub discussions.
Bakerloo - sounds quite cool, has Sherlock connections. Have non-Londoners heard of it?
Central - bit of a boring, straight line?
Circle - this dance is circular, so this might work. However, we did have a proto-dance once which we called the circle dance. It only got danced out at one event and does have similarities with the new dance. The circle line isn't a real circle anymore :-(
District - have people heard of it?
DLR - a fun line (because of no driver and the roller-coaster bit coming in to bank). Not a very nice sounding phrase.
hammersmith and city - sort of appropriate because we practise in the city but not a very distinctive line.
Jubilee - already got a dance with this name!
Overground - not a real tube line.
Metropolitan - goes off to lots of places which would suit the dance, but not a well known line.
Northern - suits the fact that the tradition comes from the North of England but this is a straight up and down line so maybe doesn't suit the dance.
Piccadilly - suits the dance because the dance is as busy and mad as Piccadilly circus at rush hour. It's a fun word.
Victoria - suits the fact that there are several Vs in the dance. Would have to call it the 'Victoria line dance' because just 'Victoria dance' makes it sound like we named it after a woman.
Waterloo and city - should reserve this for when we invent a really boring dance with only 2 figures!
If anyone has any other opinions feel free to share them by email over the weekend. Shall we have a discussion and vote at practice on Monday? Reesha, do you have any TfL tube characteristic insights which might help us?! I tried to find out which line had the most number of overground to underground changes (because of the jumps and sweeps) but failed!
Ffion x
Well done ladies! I have just laughed out very loudly over the Wolf Hall comment... Brilliant! Hope to come and visit on one of your crawls soon. Nic xxx
----- Reply message -----
From: "Ffion Mair" <ffion_coch(a)hotmail.com>
To: "Tower Ravens team" <team(a)towerravens.org.uk>
Subject: [Tower Ravens] Great crawl
Date: Fri, Jan 30, 2015 07:34
Morning all,
Thanks for a great crawl last night. I think I counted 6 pubs and 9 dances, 3 of which were Westerhope and one of which even had a successful backlock ;-) congratulation to Laura W on her first dance out. There were lots of good comments from the crowds, such as "How do they do that?!", but my favourite was definitely "have you come out of Wolf Hall?"
Here's the video I took of the final Jubilee http://youtu.be/IgPJ3D7exNg. I think it's a good dance so I've made it public. Let me know if you want me to made it private.
Hope you all have great weekends and see you on Monday!
Ffion x
Sorry gang!
Turns out I'm an idiot and can't make it for the exhibition dance out. I keep forgetting I'm going to see Elbow that night!
So you really want another yes before you go ahead and say yes (really sorry Laura if you have already done so)
So if you haven't already please say if you can come along:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
Thanks,
Becky x
I'm stealing Thrales' travel info re. trains.
Hope this is of some use :)
Becky x
From: kenwatson(a)hotmail.co.uk
To: team(a)thralesrapper.info
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 11:06:50 +0000
Subject: [Thrales] Travel to DERT
It was basically agreed yesterday that the best way to get to Bristol would be to make use of the train rather than driving.
I've looked into it a little this morning.
Leaving Paddington (not all trains listed, but most)13:58 £21.5014.28 £21.5014:57 £24.00
15:00 -> 19:00 are over £40 a ticket
19:12 £32.5019:58 £30.5020:42 £24.0021:28 £18.00
Leaving Bristol09:48 £1510:30 £1511:30 £1512:30 £2413:30 £15
GroupSave is something Dan suggested which offers 1/3 off the price of an off-peak ticket. It doesnt seem to apply a reduction on the return journey. It is also only valid for groups of 3-9 people so multiple railcards might be needed.
If this is what we want to do we will need to buy the tickets soon to ensure a reasonable price.
Please all have a think about this by next Monday. I will be asking who want to travel by train and what times in the hope to book the tickets that week.
Ken
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Hi all,
Thanks for a productive practice last night. It's great when we have 2 sets for some of the evening. We got some more people through the current version of Westerhope (see Kate's video) so on Thursday I think we'll have 6 people who can dance that out - me, Janet, Becky, Laura W, Kate and Katherine. We also managed to get Laura all the way through the new dance a few times and had a run through of the Jubilee for Thursday. Reesha and Sue, are you still OK to Tommy, either as a pair or as individuals?
As promised, here's a plan for the next month:
2 Feb
The basics things we didn't get round to doing yesterday - Relaxed stepping, Walking confidently, Walking round, Spin.
New dance - teach Jo, Reesha and Kate as much as possible and sort out some of the questions in the gdoc for the figures we get through, start from beginning.
Westerhope - learn the remaining figures.
8 Feb - extra practice from 2pm
Work on clarifying and perfecting bits of the new dance. Start from the end and work backwards figure by figure. See gdoc - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MxSLGDyWD2HE4MiG92Eneehd0Dvg6QqyBpk…
9 Feb
Make sure the Jubilee and/or new dance are good for C# event - Katherine, Sue ,Ffion, Hannorah, Laura S, Becky, Nikki.
Westerhope - string whole dance together in correct order!
16 Feb
I will be away. Who wants to be in charge?! Finish teaching Jo, Kate and Reesha the new dance.
23 Feb
Make sure everyone going on crawl is ready - new dance: 1) Ffion 2) Lindsey, 3) Becky, Reesha, 4) Hannorah 5) Katherine, T) Sue
Westerhope: 1) Ffion 2) Janet 3) Reesha 4) Lizzie 5) Katherine T) Sue
See you on Thursday,
Ffion x
