Hi all,

Sorry for the delayed response - last week was pretty busy with gigs and finishing everything off at work! 

We can discuss all of this at business tonight but, essentially, what we can achieve when I'm away depends on who's willing to take on leading the practice and what they're comfortable doing. A few people have sent me advanced apologies already so please keep doing this if you're going on any holidays - it's very helpful for planning purposes and helps us know how many swords we need to bring. 

Here's a reminder of the plan for tonight:

Jubilee alternative positions: 1) Jo and Katherine R 2) Hannorah, 3) Kat B 4) Becky 5) new Katherine
Jubilee: working on the lock if there's no tumble
Polish Beadnell with people who've missed practices/who want to do more Beadnell practice. 

NB the plan sets out the priorities for each practice, not what we'll do exclusively. Even on 'new dance weeks' we'll top and tail the practice with the dances we already know so everyone who turns up will get a chance to dance. 

See you all tonight,

Ffion x

On 8 Jul 2014, at 14:00, "Lindsey Kennedy" <kennedy.linds@gmail.com> wrote:

Very detailed plan. I like it.

If we are going to teach it to just 5 people - we need to be very clear about the plan.

I would not enjoy being not one of those 5, but asked to turn up in case every week - just to sit on the sidelines for some of the time. If 5 people commit they have to be there every week- and the people not involved should be told that they do not need to attend for specific weeks so they can make other arrangements if necessary.
The difficulty is that we have not consistently had enough people for two sets. And if we don't make two sets, its the people who aren't one of those 5 that take the hit with having to walk through from different numbers, or sitting at the side. The result is that people get frustrated, and then don't attend practise the next week.

My worry is that if we do this now, and then again for DERT then quite a few people are going to be spending a significant amount of time on the sidelines.

I personally feel that the people who turn up every week should be the ones who get priority dancing - not people who have signed up for an event in the future.

Would it be possible to move some of those items into the weeks you aren't there? For example tumbling practise for pillars, getting the basics for a couple of the new figures learnt? We can't do styling until we have everything knitted together, but we can work on getting the right people in the right places dancing them confidently. This might open up more time for learning the final dance.

Lindsey


On 8 July 2014 13:43, Ffion Mair <ffion_coch@hotmail.com> wrote:
Hello!

Thanks to everyone who came to the gig last night. It was really nice to see you all there and fun to do a dance. I think the audience enjoyed it too!

I've been looking over our bookings for the rest of the summer and have come up with the following potential plan of action.

The plan
14 July 
Jubilee alternative positions: 1) Jo and Katherine 2) Hannorah, 3) Kat B 4) Becky 5) new Katherine
Jubilee: working on the lock if there's no tumble
Polish Beadnell with people who've missed practices/who want to do more Beadnell practice. 

21 July
Polish Jubilee alternative positions: 1) Jo and Katherine 2) Hannorah, 3) Kat B 4) Becky 5) new Katherine including tumble practice for Kat. 
Practice dancing in small spaces and strange surfaces (outside) especially for those on next crawl: 1) Rachel, Katherine 2) Laura, Janet 3) Becky, Lindsey 4) Hannorah, Sinead 5) Kat

28 July
I will be on holiday. Anyone want to take on teaching duties?

4 August
I'll be on a different holiday! Volunteers?

11 August
Bit of Jubilee, bit of Beadnell, start looking at new dance again?
Beadnell - teach Katherine 1 and Becky 4

18 August
Sorry, I'll be on yet another holiday! 

25 August
bank holiday = no practice

1 Sept
Jubilee reminder with York people: 1) Katherine 2) Laura  3) Kat B, 4) Becky, Sinead, 5) Sue
Beadnell reminder with York people: 1) Katherine 2) Laura 3) Kat B, 4) Becky, Sinead, 5) Sue
Working on new dance - remembering the figures we invented

8 Sept
Jubilee reminder with Peterborough people: 1) Ffion, Katherine 2) Janet, 3) Becky, Lindsey 4) Hannorah, 5) Sue, Kat B including getting both Lindsey and Becky to tumble off Katherine & Sue and Katherine & Ffion. 
Beadnell reminder with Peterborough people: 1) Ffion, Lindsey 2) Janet, Katherine 3) Becky, Kat B 4) Hannorah, 5) Sue
Working on new dance - knitting invented figures together into proto-dance

15 Sept 
Dancing proto-dance and making necessary adjustments. 

22 Sept
Jubilee reminder with crawl people: 1) Rachel, Katherine, Ffion 2) Laura, Janet, 3) Becky, Lindsey, 4) Sinead, Hannorah 5) Sue, Kat B
Tightening up new dance

29 Sept
Jubilee reminder with Tenterden people: 1) Rachel, 2) Laura 3)Ffion? 4) Sinead, Hannorah, 5) Katherine
Beadnell reminder with Tenterden people: 1) Ffion, 2) Laura, 3) Rachel, 4) hannorah, Sinead 5) Katherine
Procession reminder with Tenterden people
Perfecting (!) new dance 

New dance
As you've probably guessed from the above, I'd like to aim to get the new dance out at Tenterden. It's quite a tall order as we've still got a lot to do on it. I feel the most efficient way of writing and learning the dance would be to concentrate on having 5 people who will be at Tenterden learn it first and then they can teach everyone else how to do it in October. I'm aware this isn't very egalitarian so if you feel strongly that we should teach the dance to everyone who turns up each week let me know. If a lot of people feel this way I think we'd have to shift the target dance out date to the October crawl or even Thrales day. Thrales day has to be the ultimate deadline or else we'll have to do Beadnell as our second dance!! If we are going to focus on 5 dancers getting the new dance right first, that mean those five need to be able to commit to all of the practices in September. It also means we need the right numbers. At the moment we have 6 dancers signed up for Tenterden (not in the positions I hoped for!) and lots of maybes. So... if you're in a position to upgrade from a maybe to a yes please do so! https://docs.google.com/document/d/11XHQc6j0g7HQto7rhOs6k0bfkw-XmFb8jmCeRa48IRI

As always, if your name's on the list for a particular day, please let me know asap if you know you won't be there. Equally, if your name's not on the list please still turn up!

Thanks,

Ffion x

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