Hello all,
Well done last night, another tricky session! Thank you for all the practice people had obviously put in in the meantime, it makes the whole thing so much more worth it!
Going foward, please continue to practice the dance, perhaps focussing on the second half to get it a bit more balanced with the first. When we get back in September we will discuss how to maintain it for when we can dance out. There was a brief discussion last night of those who are around doing 10 minutes prior to rapper/10 minutes after rapper just to run through the dance and make sure we can remember it. I don't want it to interfere with rapper practice so we will just have to see how it goes and perhaps it can properly be addressed at the AGM if that system isn't working. After that there is the question of clogs, but again I think we could address this at the AGM, I'm very aware this is an extra thing and not the point of Tower Ravens so we'll only do what everyone is happy to do!
***Next week*** watch this space to see if there is a team for practice next week.
I will see most of you on the 4th!
Becky
Hello all,
Same as last week please arrive promptly in order to crack on with the clog dancing. As far as I know I'm expecting everyone from last week plus Rachel-anne and I'm hoping everyone has a clear idea in their head how the dance goes, even if they can't quite do it!
I believe we have cake, gin and a thank you card for Kate so all organised.
Please remember that next week is back to rapper as normal - there is no me, Katherine or Ffion so Hannah is taking the helm for the week. As far as I know we have everyone apart from the Whitby goers (Me, Katherine, Ffion and Sue). Hannorah I'm also assuming you won't be around having done 2 in a row for the clog? If you can't make it please let Hannah know asap in case we end up having to cancel - we shouldn't do but i know we are at peak holiday season :)
The week after (28th) is the bank holiday, where there will be no practice, so the next practice is September 4th! As Hannah isn't at this one please can someone take the second set of swords from her?
See you later,
Becky
Hi All,
Not really any business this week, other than please all take a look at the
sign-up sheet and put your name where appropriate...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
For those of you on the crawl, Libby who came along to watch and took some
videos etc to help with her research sent the following message. If people
are happy with her coming along (not sure that there should be any issues)
- I would suggest we think about this for late September after we've had a
practice or two, seeing as we have the Whitby week where there won't be as
many of us, and then there's the bank holiday. I'm going to try and find
one of the videos of us doing Piccadilly at DERT as she was interested in
that.
*"First of all a big thanks to you and the whole side for letting me tag
along and answering so many of my questions! It was all super helpful and
I’m busy at the moment writing up some of the experience in a chapter I’m
writing for a book on ‘time’ in performer training.*
*Do you think everyone would be OK for me to come along to a practice
evening? It would be great to see how you learn the dance and get to see
the steps and moves in greater detail. Also, if people were willing it
would be lovely to do short interviews with a few of the most experienced
dancers and musicians.*
*It was a really fun evening and the little videos I’ve shown to my family
are very impressive!"*
Thanks,
Hannah
Thank you all for the card and babygro! It's super cute. Too big for him
right now (it's 9-12 months), but I'm so looking forward to Arthur wearing
it next spring! The title of "Baby Raven" is an excellent touch. :)
Rachel x
Hi all,
Please do not visit the forthcoming events page on our website - it will show how one of those 'our computer has been hacked' pages which I think means someone is trying to hack your computer. I'll try and get this sorted asap.
Ffion x
Sent from my Samsung device
Hello all,
1. Clog
2. Cake and gift next week
3. AGM
1. Big thank you to everyone who came for all their hard work last night. I don't know about you but my brain felt like mush after concentrating that hard! I hope everyone will be back next week - no point learning half of it - and can everyone make sure they practice in the mean time!? I know we're not going to appear being flawless next week but I expect everyone to know the first half of the dance so it isn't a case of not being sure what comes next.
Ffion if you could send the video round when you get a chance that'd be great - I'm still not sure I'm getting the timing right for the 5th step 😐
2. ALSO does anyone know a decent vegan cake shop/recipe and would like to provide next week?? I only have Sunday off this week so not sure I'll manage a go/it would be terrible, but it'd be nice to provide one for Kate as she's going out of her way to help us. ALSO, she hasn't made any mention of payment, but I think we should buy her a gift - I would suggest a half- decent red wine or some sort of gin (possibly too expensive). Anyone have any other ideas??
3. Finally can people consider when they want the next AGM? Traditionally we have it after Thrales day but 2016 was earlier as Katherine actively knew she wanted to step down and it made sense for DERT prep. Do people want it to be about a year? In which case I think we'd need to consider calling it? Or back to the November date? I'll bring this up at the next practice, if you won't be there but feel strongly please just get in touch.
Thanks all, happy practicing. Oh if you're not clogging STILL practice your stepping 😊
Becky
Hi All,
Some photos for Chippenham if anyone wants a look. I don't remember
speaking to Andrew there (looks to be one of the green man looking morris
dancers...), so I guess we'd need to ask permission if we want to use any
of them - unless anyone remembers otherwise...
An exceptionally funny one of Katherine mid-call about half way down. :)
Hannah
On 3 August 2017 at 23:07, Andrew Goodbody <photos(a)elfringham.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I very much enjoyed seeing you dance at Chippenham and promised to send
> you the photos I took. So here they are, at last.
>
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/50081377@N00/sets/72157684741805500
>
> Andrew
> http://suttonmasque.org.uk/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tower Ravens Committee and Info List
> info(a)towerravens.org.uk
>
Hi All,
Thanks to everyone who came out on the Crawl last Thursday - and well done
Jo on your first dance out with us!
Exciting News! We definitely do have an invite to Beverley Folk Festival
16th-18th June 2018!! So, please sign up when you know your diaries...
We also have an invite for the Wimborne Festival the weekend before - if
you feel that you don't want to do two in a row, but are available for
both, please prioritise Beverley seeing as we weren't able to make it last
year.
There are various events on the sign up sheet through to next year - please
take a look at these.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa4…
As you are probably aware - Monday will be a clog practice. I've collected
some clogs from C# - Clog sizes are one size smaller than your normal shoe
size and there aren't really halves as such. I would recommend bringing
some extra socks with you as that may help them fit! I find them pretty
loose as there isn't much thickness to my feet. If you have your own clogs,
please bring them as I can't guarantee perfect fits/enough if there are
loads and loads of us. (We have 2 size 3's (one looks a bit bigger than the
other...), 3 4's, 3 5's and 1 6 - fingers crossed this will be about
right... I have another 4 that I can wear as well.)
Thanks,
Hannah
Hello all,
So I know some people are wondering what we're learning next week/about videos etc. I haven't found a video and Kate doesn't know of one because Camden don't normally perform it. Should anyone have some google success it is simply known as Pat Tracey's beginner waltz.
The attached picture is an explanation of the basic step 'step shuffle step step'. Which they do straight and crossed. The shuffles are rounded, which we do anyway, so should hopefully feel quite natural to us!
Have no fear, my plan is to film Kate doing it so if we don't all feel too confident by the end of the two weeks we can continue to work on it later (although I'd rather not dig into rapper time, perhaps we can organise something else).
See you on Monday, try and arrive as close to 7.30 as possible so we have the maximum time.
Have lovely weekends!
Becky
Hello all,
First off thank you for everyone's work on the crawl, I think we did some good dancing and it was great to be out and about together (summer holidays won't beat us!).
Tonight I don't have: Kate, Ffion, Rachel-Anne, Hannorah and Rachel. Jo S I know you said you will be late/possibly not around so just give me a text if you think you won't make it full stop. Is there anyone else I have missed?
I thought Jubilee was looking good on Thursday although I'd like to go through hoops and the spin as hoops went wrong a couple of times and the spin was sometimes a bit under-confident. I know we didn't do Westerhope, a lot of the spaces weren't amazing for it and I know we weren't over-confident with it so we'll give that another go. If possible I'd like to carry on with Piccadilly work although depends a little on who we end up with tonight.
Please consider: The next two weeks will be clog practice - if you don't want to do that it isn't a problem just don't turn up expecting rapper! The week after that is the 21st, a few of us will be in Whitby but there should be plenty of people around to maintain practice. The problem is that Ffion, Katherine, Rachel and I are all away and are the people in the team who have taught in the past. Is there anyone who would feel happy leading practice? It would be great if we could keep the practice going, even if you're just running through the dances and doing some stepping work. Have a think and we'll talk about it tonight, bearing in mind the weekend after is bank holiday it's a long time with no rapper!
See you later,
Becky
