workshops
Always fancied having a go at clog dancing or morris or want improve your melodeon playing. How about trying your hand (or feet!) at Appalachian dance or unleashing your singing voice? The Towersey workshop programme gives you the opportunity to learn a new skill, develop an exisiting talent or just have some fun!
Throughout the Festival you will be spolit for choice with the range of workshops available. Each day starts with Family Yoga to gentle warm you up before launching into a whole range of workshops in music, dance and song.
Younger visitors also have their own tailor made workshop programme to chose from at the Children's Festival and Shooting Roots Youth Project.
2010 Dance Workshops include:
European, Scandinavian, Contra, Cotswold Morris, Rapper, North West Morris, Beginners Ceilidh, Clog Dance, Appalachian Flatfooting with an ever-growing list of tutors including Kerry Fletcher, Andrew Swaine, Jake Jones and Dan Eccles and special guest Steve Green teaching Ozark Mountain Traditional Dance.
Lanterns
Alan Horton and his team return to host the popular lantern making workshops. The lanterns made over the Festival will process to the Showground Finale on Monday night. A nominal charge of £1 per person will be made for materials.
Steve Green workshops on Sunday
Qzark Mountain Traditional Dance with Steve Green
The Ozark mountains in south central US, along with the nearby Appalachian mountains, are a region known for the concentration of traditional music and dancing. This is the heart of old time dance in the US, and includes the well known Square Dancing and Two-Step social dances, as well as the internationally popular clogging and flat footing.
Steve teaches old time dance workshops for all skill levels in both social and couple dance forms, as well as clogging and flat footing percussive styles.
Clogging and Flat footing
Clogging and Flat footing are percussive dance styles in which the dancer keeps the beat of the music with a variety of toe taps, heel digs, stomps, and slides. The dancing developed in the early days of US history drawing from Celtic step dancing, but changed to suit the more relaxed nature of colonial life in America.
These workshops are for all skill levels, and will keep both experienced dancers and beginners challenged and successful. Special shoes are not required, but comfortable leather sole shoes are suggested. Workshops can be one hour, all day, or several days, but even in a one hour class, Steve will have everyone dancing, beating out the rhythm of the music on the floor!
Waltzes, Polkas, Two-Steps, and Square Dancing
These are the traditional social dances of the American hill country. The Waltzes, Polkas, and Two-Steps have some similarity to their ballroom dance cousins, but are more relaxed in styling. These can be taught as couple dances, but are often done as group figure dances in which several couples are dancing and interacting together. Workshops are often approximately an hour long, and can be structured as beginner and intermediate levels, or can be for all comers.
Steve intends these dances to be fun! They are typically quite simple and quick to learn, so the stress is low, and the smiles come quick!
Steve Green grew up on a hill country farm in the Arkansas Ozarks, a region well known for traditional music and dance. He has earliest memories of German Polkas and Schottisches in his grandfather’s front room. These “ethnic” dances shared the floor with the local square dances and flatfooting. His dancing blends his folk roots with years of competitive Irish step dancing and Scottish Highland dancing. He has performed by invitation at festivals in Ireland, and danced professionally with Dance Theatre International of Arkansas. He lives on the mountain top family farm in the Ozarks, and has taught and performed at the Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View since the early 1980’s. He enjoys teaching dances that are fun to watch as well as fun to do.