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Online version of article first published in the July 08 issue of Folk Monthly
Thanks to Bob Taberner of thefolkmag and John Pitcock of Friday Folk for advice |
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Traditional dancing is a very sociable activity and great fun. If you’ve never tried it, the best place to start is a public barn dance or ceilidh – for example the regular ones in Coventry (Coventry Ceilidh Club), Derby (Mumpers), Leicester (Red Fox Ceilidhs) and Northampton, or at a folk festival. Some folk festivals have workshops for beginners.
If you’ve already got the bug then you could try a folk dance club. Contact the organisers first to see if they welcome beginners, and be prepared to partner an experienced club member at first. |
There are some excellent folk dance listings on the internet. Are you dancing? has a regional map, and Webfeet is a powerful search engine, while Set and Turn Single can be searched alphabetically.
Simply What's On can be filtered to show dance events near a given geographical location.
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Folk Dance Clubs - thefolkmag lists folk dance clubs in the West Midlands by name and by weekday. This site is not being updated, so be sure to check before going along. |
thefolkmag dance clubs
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| Morris dancing: find your nearest side (works in Internet Explorer, may not work with other browsers) |
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Royal Scottish Country Dance Society has branches in Birmingham, Derbyshire, Herefordshire, Leicester, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton
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RSCDS
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| The Irish Set Dancing website lists many local groups. There’s also a list of West Midlands set dance events in the folkmag |
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Breton and French Dance – monthly in Coventry and Ockbrook
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French Dance Diary
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| European Music and Dance Education lists events at Kinnersley Castle, Herefordshire and elsewhere |
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American Square Dancing - the British Association of American Square Dance Clubs. Their new website (Sept 08) includes a list of Midlands clubs, ten of which are teaching clubs (not suitable for beginners except at the start of the season) |
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Society for International Folk Dancing - associated clubs meet regularly in Buxton, Derby, Wollaton, Mapperley, Birmingham and Solihull. There’s also a Summer School at the University of Wales Swansea |
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If you think learning to dance while on holiday is a good idea, try Folk Camps or the Circle Dance Network, which has links to regional contacts, the annual Easter Gathering and circle dance holiday camps and residentials. Also in Warwickshire there is the Great Alne weekend, which takes place in April.
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Folk Camps
Circle Dance Network
Great Alne weekend |
