Folk’s Family Tree

English Dance and Song Winter 2018

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. 

Some singers, musicians and dancers are born into families steeped in the folk tradition; others are the first in their family to discover the genre. Whatever their background, they all share at least one thing in common: a love of folk.

Natalya Catton Wilson talks to folk dancer and educator Kerry Fletcher about her family’s love of folk; her own love of folk music, song and particularly dance; and what she loves about educating people on our rich culture.

Though probably best known for being a folk dancer and educator, Kerry Fletcher feels lucky to have been brought up from being a youngster to have a love of folk song and music, too. And, she says, she has her mum to thanks for this.

Kerry’s mum, Dixie, has always been interested in music, firstly skiffle and music from North America. But when she saw an advert in her local newspaper in the early 70s for someone to start running a folk club, Dixie answered the call.

She started running a club in Whitstable, when Kerry was about nine years old. In the early 70s, Kerry remembers the thrill of going to the club. “It was a really exciting time, being brought up surrounded by all those great instrumentalists and singers: sitting on the floor listening to the likes of Peter Bellamy, Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson,” Kerry recalls

She also went to folk festivals with other members of her family – siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles – some of them danced morris, others played instruments. Meanwhile, her eldest sister Jo was a founder member of one of the first women’s morris teams.

“There was a really strong folk scene in Kent and I feel really lucky to have been a part of that,” Kerry says.

“I learnt all sorts of folk dancing growing up – that’s the lovely thing about festivals – Appalachian, clogging, and I loved dancing at ceilidhs. Later, I was asked to teach, informally, at Chippenham Folk Festival and I really enjoyed that experience.”

Unbeknownst to Kerry at that time, her rich folk education was to prove useful in her own future career, although initially, her profession was as a silversmith.

“I moved to London and joined a Molly dance team – I got involved in as much folk as possible,” she smiles.

In the early 1980s, she was part of The Everlasting Circle show, put together by Tom Brown and Charley Yarwood. “For me, that was a huge turning point,” says Kerry, “it really got me interested in performing and choreographing.”

In her mid-30s, Kerry decided to pursue folk dancing as a full-time career. She went back to college, where she learnt many dance styles, such as contemporary, Kathak and choreography, and also used her folk dance. She went on to be a community folk dance artist, which finally brought all the strands of her training and experience together. For the last 20 years, she has focused her career on teaching and choreographing folk dance.

Kerry, along with choreographer Natasha Khamjani, is now Co-Artistic Director of Folk Dance Remixed, which she says: “…is my main creative drive. I’m so passionate about it. It came about because Rachel Elliott, EFDSS’ Education Director, suggested me to Emma Kerr at East London Dance, who had put a call out for dance artists with new remixed ideas. I put forward my idea of street dance on a maypole, to give folk dance a new energy and attract a new age group of people. Emma put me in touch with Natasha, we borrowed EFDSS’ maypole on a May morning on 2010 – and the idea for Folk Dance Remixed was born.

“We set Folk Dance Remixed up with funding from Arts Council England. We have an outdoor family show and run workshops at arts and community festivals, combining hip hop styles with folk dance, Bollywood with morris, and so on. When we’ve performed on high streets, young people have enjoyed joining in the workshops afterwards.”

She adds: “I feel like a bit of a late bloomer – I’m in my mid-50s now and I’m finally doing what I always dreamed of doing in my 20s – but back then, this sort of thing didn’t exist.

“I feel so lucky to have been brought up in this folk tradition – but more lucky to be very much part of the present, current British culture which all feeds into this. Folk is a living, breathing thing and we should celebrate all the cultures in our country together, and make folk relevant to young people today.”

A great example of this, she says, was when Folk Dance Remixed performed in Oldham, after the tragic bombings in nearby Manchester in May 2017.

“Around the maypole, we had women in full burkas, police, teenage lads and a wheelchair user; people who wouldn’t necessarily normally connect, all dancing together,” says Kerry. “That’s what the power of folk dance can do, bring communities together. It’s so powerful. We were all in bits; it was extraordinary and very moving.”

Kerry, who also runs EFDSS’ Folk Educators Group, is proud to be able to help facilitate people’s own professional development in teaching the folk arts.

“It’s great to give something back, I feel like I’ve almost come full circle – how lucky am I?”

Find out more about Folk Danced Remixed at: folkdanceremixed.com. Discover more about EFDSS’ Folk Educators Group by visiting: efdss.org/folkeducators