18 Jul
2018
18 Jul
'18
9:52 p.m.
Hi again Rachel-Anne,
Your whatsapp video request reminded me that there were some other things I'd promised
to send. Sorry if it's too late!
Here's a link to Trina's facebook profile
https://www.facebook.com/trina.mckendrick She takes great photos of rapper and usually
posts them in The Nut group https://www.facebook.com/groups/164866403667090/ If you're
still looking for good photos of us and you can find some there I'm sure she'd be
happy to be contacted about using her images.
I found some great videos in my personal youtube of unlisted videos. If you want to have a
look through everything I could send you my log in details. For your amusement here is the
first dance at a practice in 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d03cFvNv8U&feature=youtu.be and here's a bit of
it being danced out with Patrick Tommying (please change his joining date to 2012!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbCI8fJnbDY&feature=youtu.be<https:/…
Having watched this I think you could say that Jubilee is a heavily edited version of this
dance rather than a completely new dance. The structure is the same as are several of the
figures. Some were replaced (e.g. hoops instead of cramper and haymarket instead of granny
knot) and others were jazzed up (e.g. pixies instead of moving fixy).
In terms of other dances, the circle dance was supposed to be a circular, slower and easy
dance. We took figures from a few different places and danced it out once at Tenterden
then never danced it again. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuPJdDK_GvM and
also here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7crmQlLVCt4 The following summer we learnt
Beadnell as our alternative slower dance because it was easy to learn.
Have we got a record of the fish Beadnell dance in the scrapbook? That's got to be one
of the weirdest (and successful up to that point) things we've ever done dance-wise.
The dance that became Piccadilly took a few figures from the circle dance (because we
decided we needed Jubilee and a flashier dance rather than Jubilee and an easier dance)
and a couple of figures which other team mates brought to the team (I remember that
windmills was Aisha's and popcorn was American Anna's) but they were mostly ones I
knew already that I tried to fit together in interesting ways. We had a lot of practices
spent on trying figure out if one of the transitions I'd dreamed up was actually
physically possible! We danced it first at Mables Day in one of the pubs down an alleyway.
At the end Simon Matthews asked if it was called the "shit shit fuck dance"
because those were the only words he'd heard me say during the dance. (In my defense
the shits were "tits").
One day when I was bored I started writing a chronology of when different team members
joined us. I'll forward that separately.
Hope you're all well. So far I'm finding Rome very warm but very pretty.
Ffion x
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs -
caneuongwerin.wordpress.com<http://caneuongwerin.wordpress.com>
________________________________
From: Ffion Mair <ffion_coch(a)hotmail.com>
Sent: 17 June 2018 22:39
To: Becky Such; Rachel Anne Smith
Cc: Tower Ravens
Subject: Re: [Tower Ravens] Scrapbook
Hello,
Apologies for being so late to the scrap book party. Just started thinking about DERTs and
here are some of my memories...
Burton - There were suits of armour all over the hotel. There was a pub with low beams and
a slipper tile floor where I think we dropped both locks. Someone forgot their pajamas.
Leeds - When Thrales saw us dance at Foleys they were visibly impressed. I remember
thinking "oh yeah, we have got so much better". We went wild when our names were
announced as third place in the championship, so much so that we didn't hear who got
second or first. We danced for so long to the 'normal' music after the ceremony
that we had to be chucked out.
Bristol - First year of Piccadilly. I made a complete mess of painting someone's nails
in the park half way through the day. Our last competition dance was in front of what felt
like whole rapper community. The dance was going really well and I could feel the
excitement building within the set. I said "calm down" just before popcorn but
it was too late, and we all knew it - we messed up popcorn but still left the dance area
to deafening cheers. Someone from Star and Shadow was even in tears. It was my birthday
so, following a very frustrating trad competition where the Phil Heaton didn't even
write down the correct figures we danced, we drank prosecco. And then wine. And then more
prosecco after the results were announced. And then more wine in Weatherspoons. And then
someone downed the remains of a hip flask in the kitchen at the hostel. We got chucked out
of the kitchen in the early hours of the morning when the cleaner came in.
Manchester - Someone's tights and knickers fell down at the warm up pub. We got so
lost between two pubs that we nearly missed our slot. Drinks at the evening venue were so
expensive that the most sensible course of action seemed to be to run (literally) to the
nearest pub, down (or sip in someone's case) shots and run back again in time for the
results. We didn't get chucked out of anywhere but we did get refused entry to at
least one pub on our way back to the hostel.
Kendal - Paul gave us a great pep talk about tigers and dicks as we got ready in our room.
Sue and I shared our obligatory first drink - a glass of white wine with two straws. The
sun was shining and (almost) everyone was being nice to each other as teams passed in the
street. We screamed very loudly when we won the championship (obviously) and were still
celebrating so loudly that we missed the premiership winners announcement. We drank the
bar dry of prosecco and stayed later than most, until someone had to be taken back in a
taxi with a plastic bag on their lap. Street furniture was discussed in great detail on
the walk/carry back to the hostel.
It almost feels too soon to be reminiscing about Sheffield so I'll just say that we
danced excellently, screamed loudly and were the last team standing (or rather dancing) at
the evening venue.
Phew. That was a bit more than I intended to write. Hope it's of some use Rachel-Anne.
I've tried to anonymise potentially embarrassing bits but if anyone wants to own up to
being any of the "someones" go ahead. I'll start - it was my tights and
knickers.
I'll try and send some other non-DERT memories from the last 6 years too at some other
point.
See you all tomorrow!
Ffion x
Please take a look at my blog on Welsh folk songs -
caneuongwerin.wordpress.com<http://caneuongwerin.wordpress.com>
________________________________
From: TowerRavensTeam <towerravensteam-bounces(a)lists.postman.org.uk> on behalf of
Rachel Anne Smith via TowerRavensTeam <towerravensteam(a)lists.postman.org.uk>
Sent: 05 June 2018 19:46
To: Becky Such
Cc: Tower Ravens
Subject: Re: [Tower Ravens] Scrapbook
Thanks Sue and Becky - I'll give Leigh-on-Sea a wide birth! That's good about
learning Beadnell though and horror stories from dancing it out!
R-a xx
On Fri, Jun 1, 2018 at 12:21 PM, Becky Such
<rebeccasuch@hotmail.com<mailto:rebeccasuch@hotmail.com>> wrote:
Yes we learnt Beadnell!
And then did it very badly (Ken nearly cried) at Leigh on Sea, as we changed up about 4
times *Sob*
And yes, a procession in between a pipe band and a gang of border morris men that used
metal pipes instead of sticks. It's also where we looked on in horror at the somewhat
amateur belly dances as we decided to take shelter in a pub.
Never been overly bothered about going back to Leigh on Sea, I wonder why??
Becky x
________________________________
From: TowerRavensTeam
<towerravensteam-bounces@lists.postman.org.uk<mailto:towerravensteam-bounces@lists.postman.org.uk>>
on behalf of Sue Connolly
<connollysue@hotmail.com<mailto:connollysue@hotmail.com>>
Sent: 01 June 2018 08:14
To: Rachel Sheridan
Cc: Tower Ravens
Subject: Re: [Tower Ravens] Scrapbook
Very impressed with all these recollections, most of which are just a blur in my falling
memory. One extra dance we learned was a trad dance, with some embarrassment because it
was a Thrales dance and we didn't want to copy them blatantly. But it was the easiest
in the short time available. Was it Beadnell? We took it to Leigh-on-Sea and possibly
Tenterden.
Oh yes - anyone remember that procession at Leigh-on-Sea when we followed one or more
highland pipers? Poor Nicky didn't stand a chance of being heard and we hadn't
spent much time practising a processional so it was a bit underwhelming, to say the
least.
S x
Sent from my iPad
On 30 May 2018, at 22:44, Rachel Sheridan
<rachel.sheridan@cantab.net<mailto:rachel.sheridan@cantab.net>> wrote:
I say that the first dance was unnamed simply because it existed before we decided to name
our dances after tube lines. It was created almost immediately, and was the dance used
for our first few crawls and danceouts. It was our only dance until Jubilee was written
in January 2013, so we probably just referred to it as "the dance"! Personally
I would consider it to be a "proper" dance, since it was danced out.
The first dance was created almost immediately (spring 2012). The AGM minutes for November
2012 say "we have decided that we want to write ourselves a second dance. We would
like to make it more complicated than and as separate as we can from our current one.
Everyone can input into the second dance with figures that they like. Until this second
dance is written, we can practice variations on figures for the first dance, and figures
that we like for the second dance." This second dance was what would later be named
Jubilee, and was the dance we took to DERT in 2013.
I'm starting to go through the email archives now (this is quite fun!). Jubilee was
first written in January 2013, and went to DERT two months later. There are a couple of
videos of us learning it (one in practice, one on crawl - these are fairly embarrassing to
watch!). The first mention of the tube line titles is in April 2013, when Jubilee is
officially named as such. The impression I have at this point going by the emails is that
we are working on teaching everyone Jubilee and the first dance has fallen by the
wayside.
Later that summer, we start to learn a new dance, aimed at being easier than Jubilee
("the DERT dance"), and judging by the email listing the figures, I think this
is the Circle dance, though it's not called by name. The minutes in November 2013 say
the dances are "named after tube lines, have a good dance and a learner dance.
Let's call dances by their tube names. Jubilee is not-finished-dert dance. People seem
to not want a third dance before dert. Happy to work on current dances. Could do dance
well, add tumble." The learner dance here is the Circle dance. We visited Thrales
December 2013 to run a tumbling workshop. There's another video of us dancing Jubilee
in practice in January 2014 - with added tumble!
By the EGM in March 2014, the Circle dance has died. The minutes say "We should
definitely write a second dance! It would be really good to get one with more complex
moves that will be more dramatic to an audience. We must be careful not to make it such
hard work we tire ourselves out or lose any of our precision though! Concern regarding
the Jubilee dance being our “easy” dance, but we think that’ll probably be OK. It’d be
good to make the new dance more general facing to be able to take it out this summer.
Salvage bits of the original Circle dance? Jumps would be good! Descriptor: “A flashy
complex circle-ish dance that we would be able to take to DERT” (if we wanted)."
Piccadilly was created summer and autumn 2014. There's a video of people walking
through the first half of it in September 2014, having learnt it. It looks like Piccadilly
had its first dance out sometime in autumn 2014, and it was danced out at Mabel Day 2014.
(This is during my break from Ravens, so I'm not sure on the details - can anyone
remember?) Westerhope was also first decided upon as the trad dance to learn autumn 2014.
Both Westerhope and Piccadilly had their first DERT performances in 2015. But I'm
getting tired and I want to go to bed, so I'm going to stop digging through the
archives for detailed dates now. More info on request. :)
In terms of Thrales, I'm too tired to word my thoughts properly now - I'll send a
follow up email in the morning.
Hope this all makes sense.
Rachel
On Wed, 30 May 2018, 19:16 Rachel Anne Smith,
<smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com<mailto:smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com>>
wrote:
Ooh I'm learning! Circle dance - intriguing! This is all great stuff. But I probably
won't focus on an unnamed dance - would the team consider Jubilee to be our first
'proper' dance?
And it's fair to say that help from Thrales was instrumental to getting TR off the
ground? (sorry for the bird pun) I know the first crawl was joint with them.
(oh and in the future when I'm getting the archive together - Im gonna need to
document all you team knowledge Rachel!)
Thanks,
R-a xx
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 6:54 PM, Rachel Sheridan
<rachel.sheridan@cantab.net<mailto:rachel.sheridan@cantab.net>> wrote:
I don't know what happened to the feather boas. They're probably kicking around in
someone's cupboard...
Thrales taught us figures, but we've written all our own dances (except for
Westerhope, obviously!). Jubilee wasn't actually our first dance - before that there
was an even simpler beginners dance that was never named. And between Jubilee and
Piccadilly was the Circle dance, which only lasted a short while.
There was a reasonable amount of experience at the beginning - several people had come
from university sides, or done workshops in the past. But we also had people who'd
stewarded at DERT and never done any rapper before at all.
Rachel
On Wed, 30 May 2018, 16:00 Rachel Anne Smith,
<smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com<mailto:smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com>>
wrote:
Thanks Rachel and Hannorah - these are great! Love the first DERT photo! Any
memories/stories from that first DERT? It definitely helps to have accompanying dates and
locations because I was thinking about doing a timeline of important dates, maybe.
And that first crawl looked like a lot of fun! Why did we give up on feather boas?!
Did Thrales help teach/make up Jubilee? Or was there enough expertise in the set at the
beginning?
R-a xx
On Wed, May 30, 2018 at 11:31 AM, Rachel Sheridan
<rachel.sheridan@cantab.net<mailto:rachel.sheridan@cantab.net>> wrote:
Here are the photos off Facebook of our first ever crawl. First crawl was joint with
Thrales on 12th October 2012, in Clerkenwell. As Hannorah says, first solo crawl was that
December. Photos attributed to Nic Chrisp, for those of you who remember her. I love how
in these photos you can see we hadn't made sashes yet and just had bits of net. Proper
sashes by DERT 2013, though, as per Hannorah's photo.
I've also attached the poster we used to advertise before the team even began! This
poster was up at DERT at C# in March 2012, along with matching flyers. We had a pub
meeting to talk about plans on 2nd April, and our first dancing practice was a workshop
from Thrales on 16th April. We didn't become Tower Ravens until May 2012.
Rachel
On Wed, 30 May 2018, 08:54 Hannorah Lee,
<hannorah.lee@hotmail.co.uk<mailto:hannorah.lee@hotmail.co.uk>> wrote:
Here’s a couple from early days:
- Whitby 2013 (our first unofficial festival: a couple of pub dances & Aisha’s 19th
Birthday!)
- Our first official festival, Tenterden 2013
- Cover of Folk London 2014
- Our first DERT, Burton, 2013
- First solo crawl in Islington, Dec 2012
I’ve got more, but no point me duplicating ones someone else is gonna send. But let me
know if you want them.
Hx
[image6.jpeg]
[image5.jpeg]
[image4.jpeg][image3.jpeg]
[image1.jpeg]
On 29 May 2018, at 14:49, Rachel Anne Smith via TowerRavensTeam
<towerravensteam@lists.postman.org.uk<mailto:towerravensteam@lists.postman.org.uk>>
wrote:
Thanks Rachel - I'll take a look too. Why didn't I think of facebook? Duh!! x
On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 2:47 PM, Rachel Anne Smith
<smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com<mailto:smith.rachelanne@googlemail.com>>
wrote:
No problem, Ffion - thanks! I just thought I'd get started early to make sure everyone
who wants to contribute gets a chance.
Can't wait to get a look at the first dance out! x
On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 1:55 PM, Ffion Mair
<ffion_coch@hotmail.com<mailto:ffion_coch@hotmail.com>> wrote:
There's definitely a photo from our first dance out. We're on the square in
Clerkenwell and Simon Vaughan is wearing a blue feather boa. There are also photos of
making skirts in that place under the arches. I probably have lots of useful photos on my
hard drive but I'm away until Sunday. Is it ok to send you them then? X
On 29 May 2018 1:37 pm, Rachel Sheridan
<rachel.sheridan@cantab.net<mailto:rachel.sheridan@cantab.net>> wrote:
There are early photos of the first crawl somewhere on Facebook, I remember finding them
before. I'll have a look when I have a moment.
Rachel
On Tue, 29 May 2018, 13:31 Becky Such,
<rebeccasuch@hotmail.com<mailto:rebeccasuch@hotmail.com>> wrote:
It's worth perusing facebook which has the first DERT we attended and when we got new
swords (2013)
I've just tried searching through Thrales' photos but can't see any of us from
the first crawl, but I'll ask Vaughan as he tommied for us and does love a photo.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/thrales/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10151772… is an
album where they taught us how to tumble if that is of any use?
Also, I'm investigating the biodegradable body glitter for Sidmouth *woop*
Becky xx
[https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-1/p200x200/19030444_10154804274…
Thrales
Rapper<https://www.facebook.com/pg/thrales/photos/?tab=album&album_i…
www.facebook.com<http://www.facebook.com>
Thrales Rapper, London, United Kingdom. 854 likes. Rapper short sword dancers from
Southwark; bringing culture and enlightenment to the congestion charge zone and beyond!
Twitter @Thrales/Instagram...
________________________________
From: TowerRavensTeam
<towerravensteam-bounces@lists.postman.org.uk<mailto:towerravensteam-bounces@lists.postman.org.uk>>
on behalf of Rachel Anne Smith via TowerRavensTeam
<towerravensteam@lists.postman.org.uk<mailto:towerravensteam@lists.postman.org.uk>>
Sent: 29 May 2018 11:33
To: Tower Ravens
Subject: [Tower Ravens] Scrapbook
Hi everyone,
I've been tasked with creating a scrapbook for Sidmouth. (Will it have a quilted front
cover, you ask? Probably!)
There are some photos in the google drive but not that many, and they only go as far back
as 2014. If anyone has any favourite photos (and accompanying stories/anecdotes?!) that
they want to be included please email them to me (max 5 so as not to get out of hand).
And founding/early members - Jo, Rachel, Ffion, Sue I'm looking at you - Do you have
the very first photo? I think it would be lovely to include that if we could. (Or one from
the first dance out)
Thanks for your input!
R-a xx
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