Supporting English folk dance

English Dance and Song Winter 2019

This article was published in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts. 

Laura Connolly, EFDSS’ Dance Development Manager, gives an update on our Dance Development programme’s achievements over the last few years, and looks forward to the future.

In 2015, EFDSS’ first Dance Development Manager was appointed. The role came with the arrival of two generous legacies from the late Rita Smyth and Jennifer Millest, both with desires to support and develop English folk dance. These funds have enabled us to achieve a great deal over the last five years, supporting and growing our practitioner workforce and delivering youth dance activities to enthuse and encourage a new generation of dancers. The initial funding has also become an invaluable catalyst to encourage donations as well as earned income. As with all good things, this support is now coming to an end. We are seeking further funds to maintain and continue this important work.

Practitioner development

We have developed two courses to support folk dance tutors, performers, teachers and educators who wish to improve their knowledge, skills and sustainability:

• How to Teach English Social Folk Dance, a professional development training day, has been developed and led by folk dance artist Kerry Fletcher. To date, the course has been delivered in London and Salford. The cross- fertilisation between participants of folk and non-folk backgrounds – a mix of callers, dance educators and school teachers – has made the course extremely valuable.

• Keeping Folk Dancers On Their Feet is a safe and effective dance practice led by Edel Quin, Programme Leader MSc Dance Science at Chichester University. The content was carefully developed to consider the specific needs of English folk dance – looking at ways to prevent injuries, as well as how to dance better and for longer.

Steps for Success

In March 2018 we were delighted to present this landmark national conference in partnership with People Dancing, our first conference on English social folk dance for several decades. We welcomed presenters and delegates of all ages, from throughout the social folk dance scene – including clubs, festivals, ceilidh series, regular dances, community, health and educational settings. There was a great deal of positivity and willingness to share ideas and experiences.

Caller Development Days

Following demand for further support for callers, in 2019 we presented our first Caller Development Day. Gareth Kiddier, Folk Dance Coordinator at Sidmouth Folk Festival, opened a busy day including workshops about effective calling and gender-free calling and the principles and practicalities of safe dance. The day also featured a thought-provoking talk from keynote speaker Patrick McGeough of Para Dance UK on including disabled people.

Our next Caller Development Day will take place at Cecil Sharp House on Saturday 8 February 2020. We are excited to include keynote speakers John McMahon from Arts Council England and Anna Leatherdale from People Dancing. The day will include panel discussions with leading callers, practical surgery sessions and practical dance workshops.

Youth dance

We have steadily been building our relationship with U.Dance, the national youth dance festival run by One Dance UK, working hard together to ensure English folk dance is included in a variety of ways.

In 2016 we commissioned Folk Dance Remixed to create Life Remixed, a new youth dance piece for 30 young people from across the North West, which was performed at The Lowry, Salford. U.Dance 2017 took us to Birmingham where we advised on programming a ceilidh for the welcome event. In 2018, we again commissioned Folk Dance Remixed to deliver Maypole Remixed for the national festival at DanceEast in Ipswich.

This year we took part in U.Dance at London’s Southbank Centre, presenting a day of free events including a youth dance ceilidh, pop-up performances from Fool’s Gambit Morris, Young Miscellany, London Youth Folk Ensemble and ICanDance inclusive dance group. A workshop led by Ben Moss engaged 30 youth dancers who enjoyed experiencing English folk dance (ceilidh, morris and longsword) for the first time.

We have also developed termly youth dance ceilidhs at Cecil Sharp House, including an annual event bringing together youth dance groups from other genres to perform their dances as ceilidh spots whilst enjoying English ceilidh dancing.

Other activities the programme has supported include the Saturday night ceilidh and delivery of a bite-sized How To Teach English Social Folk Dance course at Intervarsity Folk Dance Festival, and bursaries for community folk dance artists to attend People Dancing Summer Schools.

I was also delighted to present a clog dancing workshop live to the nation via BBC Arts #DancePassion in April which has reached nearly 100,000 people, with the BBC Arts team picking this as one of “nine amazing moments from #DancePassion live”.

Can you help to grow our Dance Development programme?

These are just a few of many highlights. None would have been possible without the initial funding from two generous legacies.

With more support, we’ll be able to stimulate and support the development of more high-quality folk dance around England and to take what we’ve achieved so far to the next level.

You can find out more about how you could support us, either through an immediate donation or in your Will, at efdss.org/support-us