Scandi & French Extravaganza: 4--6 March 2016

Our next event will be a big one! French dance on the Friday evening, organised by Adam Cade, then a day of Scandinavian dance workshops and an evening bal.

Friday 4 March -- Evening French Bal

Saturday 5 March -- Day dance workshops
-- Evening Scandi Dance


Floorspace available in local homes. Let me know if you want to come!

Full details soon.

Scandi & French Extravaganza: 6--7 March

After a year's wait, I can't wait for our next Scandi Dance on Saturday 7 March! Come and dance, play or just enjoy the atmosphere.

As you may have heard, you can also come for some music and dancing on the Friday too: Adam Cade has organised a French Dance on Friday 6 March -- why not come for both?

All events will take place in the newly-refurbished Northwick Hall, at the back of the Northwick Arms, High Street Ketton (PE9 3TA).

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Booking: 
You can buy tickets for the workshops and the bals on the door if you like (numbers permitting), but you need to book some things in advance:

* There will be a communal meal on the Saturday, with food provided by the new landlord of the Northwick Arm's public house. Vegetarian, vegan, & meat options, all £6 each. Advance booking is essential. Please email ketton.scandi@gmail.com to secure your meal.

* Indoor and outdoor camping available in local homes, but space is limited. Please email asap to book a place.

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Further details: 

Friday night French Bal (£5)

8pm -- 11pm

With music from Anna Pack, and Joe Wass & Hinny Pawsey
 
Anna is a dancer and musician with a longstanding interest in French traditional dance. She performs also in a duo with Dave Shepherd (Violin - Blowzabella) and has previously performed in The Chase and Circa Compania both as a dancer and player of diatonic button accordion.
 
Joe Wass & Hinny Pawsey are passionate players and dancers of French and Scandinavian dance music.  They have spent many happy hours on forest dance floors, from Saint Chartier to Kaustinen, and in snow-snug sessions, from Copenhagen to Umea, and are delighted to bring you the best of what they have discovered.

For more info: contact the organiser of this bit: Adam Cade: adam@susted.org.uk
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Saturday Dance Workshops

2pm Two ways to dance Boda polska: beautiful couple dance from central Sweden. My favourite kind of turning polska.

4.pm Dancing slängpolska: a free-form dance from the south of Sweden. Many people feel this dance is both the easiest and the hardest Swedish dance. Come and learn some ways to enjoy it!

These workshops will both be taught by me, Michael Cade-Stewart with live music from talented musicians. They will cost £5 for either or both. Exact timings have not yet been fixed, but both will be on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday communal meal: (£6)

BOOK NO LATER THAN 4 MARCH

6pm. With food from the Northwick Arms. The pub is not yet fully open, and will not be serving other food. There are fine places to eat in nearby Stamford (4 miles)

 

Saturday Night Dance!
Saturday night: live Scandinavian music and dancing!
Come to dance, play or just listen to some incredible music. (£5)
7pm onwards: Intro dance workshops at the start, licensed bar. Social dancing into the night. What more could you want?

If you want a particular dance taught at one of our events, please let us know.

If you're a Facebook user, please say you're coming on our March Scandi Dance event page to help spread the word.

 Hope to see you there!
Michael

Spring Scandi Dance

As you'll already know if you've signed up to our mailing list, our next event will be on Saturday 7 March! It will be held in the Northwick Hall, at the back of the newly-owned Northwick Arms pub in Ketton (where we first started over four years ago). More details will be announced soon, but please save the date! 

I'm hoping to teach Bodapolska, but if you want a workshop in something else, email me or comment on this blog to let me know!

This event will be in partnership with Ketton Showtime, who are organising a night of French music and dance on the Friday night (6 March). So if you fancy some French too, come along to both! There will be floorspace available in local homes.

Looking forward to it already!

ps. If you're a facebook user, please sign up on our event page.

April Scandi Dance + Rheingans Sisters! 4--5 April 2014

[Updated 24 March]

Come along on Friday and Saturday 4--5 April to Tinwell Village Hall for a musical extravaganza! On Friday night there will be a concert and short dance, and then on Saturday there'll be dance and music workshops during the day, communal eating, and a social dance in the evening!

Rheingans Sisters: Fri 4 April

Ketton Dance France has organised a gig from the talented Rheingans Sisters, who are touring the country. They're playing for a concert and short dance on Friday 4 April. They will be playing French, American, English and Scandi tunes. 8pm, Tinwell Village Hall. For more details contact adam@susted.org.uk. Tickets £8(£6). There will be a bar for this event only.

Scandi Social Dance: Sat 5 April

There'll be a Scandi bal on Saturday night, starting with introductory dance workshops at 7:30pm, and then dancing into the night! There's always fantastic live music, and lovely dancing to be had until midnight.

Come along to dance, play or just enjoy the atmosphere! Entry: a mere £5.
Tea and coffee available, but no bar, so please bring your own wine and beer.

Tune Workshop

I'm delighted to say that Carol Turner has offered to teach a Boda polska tune or two in our tune workshop. I'll be able to confirm the time soon, but it will probably start at 5:45. The workshop will be FREE!

Dance Workshops

More good news: Pat Lindop and J²ohn Stewart will both be leading dance workshops, and Kate Lackenby and I will be too! Presently, we're planning to run workshops in the afternoon and evening, but the programme hasn't been fixed yet, and things may well happen in the morning too!

Provisional Times:
2:00 -- 3:30pm  Pat Lindop will be teaching a workshop on "tips for turning" in Swedish dance, drawing on her extensive expertise in teaching and learning Swedish dances in the UK and Sweden. This workshop will be suitable for total beginners, and be of value to more experienced dancers.

3:45 -- 5:15pm  Kate Lackenby and me, Michael Cade-Stewart will be teaching Boda polska. A strong favourite among the types of turning polskor. It's something like a "normal" polska with the addition of the rise and fall of a French mazurka. A truly fantastic dance: come along to experience it!

7:30 -- 8:15pm  J²ohn Stewart, another hugely experienced dance teacher, will be leading introductory workshops in Swedish basics at the start of the Bal.

Communal Meal!

We will be offering a simple vegetarian or vegan meal for those who book in advance. It will cost £5, and booking is essential: please do so by email before midnight on Thursday 27 March. Dinner will be served at 6:30pm.

If you need somewhere to stay overnight do get in touch. Floorspace available in local houses: ketton.scandi@gmail.com, and camping space if you're hardy!

Ticket Prices for Saturday

Afternoon dance workshops: £5 for one, or £7 for both (a pound off for conc.).
Tune Workshop: Free
Dinner: £5
Evening Dance: £5 (£4 conc.)
Introductory workshop: Free
Day Ticket: everything on Saturday: £15 (£13 conc)
(Please note that tickets for the Rheingans Sisters gig on Friday 4 April are available separately from: adam@susted.org.uk)

Tideswell Scandi 17--19 Jan 2014, plus exciting events in April

Tideswell X

 

Are you free this weekend? Every year Carol Turner runs a fantastic weekend of Scandi music and dancing in Tideswell, in the Peak District. It's normally fully-booked, but some spaces have become available this year. It's a DIY festival, running from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon (17--19 Jan), with music and dance workshops on offer all day, and dancing into the night. Indoor camping is available in the downstairs rooms of the hall, and the whole thing, including food, will set you back only £40 (or thereabouts - check with Carol!). There is also a 2-person cottage booking going spare, owing to a cancellation. For more info, and to book a place, email ketton.scandi@gmail.com and I'll forward it on to Carol.

Even though the tickets for Carol's Tideswell Scandi weekend are very cheap indeed, it actually raises money for Scandimoot Festival each year. So if you want to have a great weekend having fun and supporting a fantastic festival, then you know where to come!

But that's not all...
 

Ketton Scandi Dance: Sat 5 April, plus Rheingans Sisters on Fri 4 April 

The next Scandi Dance near Ketton will be on Saturday 5 April, following the concert and dance from the Rheingans Sisters on the night before.

Friday 4 April
Rowan and Anna Rheingans are extremely talented musicians, who have attended many Ketton events in the past. They explore traditional and contemporary folk music from across Scandinavia, Britain and America. Their music has a strong emphasis on two fiddles and two voices with banjo, cello, bansitar and concertina too. Their debut album 'Glad Gold Hearts' was released on Rootbeat Records in early 2013, to much acclaim.  They will be playing a concert set, followed by a chance to dance. More info, and tickets from the organiser Adam Cade: adam@susted.org.uk.

Saturday 5 April
I am delighted to say that we will be running a Scandi Dance the very next day! It's been over a year since the last one, so we're going to make up for it with extra time for workshops during the day. I will be teaching beautiful Bodapolska in one of the afternoon slots, but there's plenty of time for other workshops in the late morning or at another time in the afternoon. If you'd like to offer to teach some music or dance, or request something taught, please do get in touch. There will be an introductory dance workshop in the evening at the start of the bal, but if you want to explore something in more depth, let me know!

And even that's not all!
I will be teaching Swedish dance at Pied à Terre in Norwich again this year, on Wednesday 2 April. Do come if you can!

Hope to see you soon,
Michael

Cancelled -- Summer Scandi 2013

Oh no! Unfortunately, we've had to cancel our Summer Scandi Dance, which had been scheduled for 6 July 2013. There are just too many things going on.

Thanks for all your support over the year: it's been an amazing one for the Scandi dance. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have.

Enjoy the summer!

Saturday 6 July -- Summer Scandi Dance

Our next event will be our Summer Dance on Saturday 6 July. It's a few months off, but please save the date. I'm hoping it won't be snowing...

I have been asked to teach Swedish vals and polka (yes, polka) -- let me know what you think (email)



In the meantime, I very much hope to see some of you at Scandimoot festival this weekend. We can't wait.