Another year at the #nationalfolkfestival #folkfestival done. My gig is that I teach part of the Dance Composers' Competition. In one hour I have to teach four dances, get the dancers through a couple of repeats, and then they throw the previous dance out of their head and learn the next one. I don't know the composers and I only get the dances in mid March, so in less than a month I have to learn how to teach and call these dances - practicing with my partner and seven 'ghost' people in a set of four couples. I have to work out what will go wrong, find ways of teaching the dance that will prevent those problems, but I must stick to the actual description of the dance; I can't fix a problem by changing the dance or how it's described.
This year I had two dances that were particularly challenging. One had a complex move - a tandem half reel with the middle two people going out through the ends and everyone ending up on the 'wrong' side of the set. The other just involved a lot of 'meanwhiles' - one couple does one thing, another does a different thing, and I have to try to get those instructions across to the dancers 'simultaneously'. One of them won the 'experienced dancers' section.
And the highlight was the last dance, which was a beautiful and simple waltz for couple facing couple around the hall, where I could teach it once through and then we could dance it quickly. Maybe I was just relieved from the stress of the last two dances, but at one particular moment the harp in the band came through clearly and beautifully and I was actually completely overcome at the beauty of the music and the beauty of the dances and how it all worked together. I completely choked up and I struggled to get the next calls out. I explained through tears how beautiful it all was.
I'm choked up and teary now just thinking of it. It really was special.
Go find a local traditional social dance group. Scottish Country dancing, Irish Set dancing, Contra, English, Hungarian, whatever - it's fun, you get a bit of mild exercise and socialising. And occasionally you get to be part of something beautiful.
Peter Riley
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