Gypsy moves and the vicar's wife - letters from STS issue 82 July 2013.
Speed dating and folk dancing?
Dear Chris,
In STS 81 Karen Barrett suggests speed dancing. I think not - but her suggestion of lots
of short dances would have the advantage over events where the caller tells you to 'keep
the partner you have' for what seems like an eternity when all you really want to do is
get back to the woman you asked to dance originally. At any dance there needs to be plenty
of time for anyone to find and dance with the one (or two?) people they find most
appealing.
A recent speed dating event at a library in Surrey attracted many men and apparently not a
single woman. I suspect the opposite might be true for dancers - so maybe if you combined
the two types of event and held a dance in a library? After all, at Chippenham we had a
dance in a Church and there were one or two disbelieving glances from passers by!
The serious issue remains that online dating websites attract
money in the tens of millions and with contact between people being limited in 95% or more
of cases to a few emails - so called online 'chat'. There must surely be a way for folk
dancing to tap into this huge and lucrative singles market?
Will the STS website develop in this direction?
No format is likely to suit everyone - I try and tease partners as much as possible and it
is usually the American and French women who appreciate it most. Quite regularly I am told
that women would prefer their partners to flirt more. At Chippenham one woman told me I
had 'lovely contra eyes'. It made up for those who (as always) refuse even to do a gypsy
properly. They should take up knitting or stamp collecting.
Yours (forever being misunderstood by women)
Steve Wozniak
STEVE WOZNIAK RECOUNTS A DANCE EXPERIENCE
I'm not sure that this counts as extreme
dancing but the other night I went to a 'meet the new vicar' social event in nearby Ottery
St Mary. Apart from my partner, the temptations were home made cottage pie, trifle and the
ever popular Stick Fiddle band, all for £7.
It was a curious evening: arrive at 7.30 and eat first. Fine for religious non-dancers (of
which there were many) but not such a good idea for those of us who can resist neither
temptation nor a dance. I had two helpings of cottage pie and two of trifle. Attention
then turned to the band and to our new local caller, Gill Spence from Ottery. She did very
well to keep the dances going, especially as most people were not paying attention. I
managed to find one partner who could clearly dance and I had never seen before.
On the basis that this was an opportunity not to be missed I spun her round so fast in a
couple of sets that her unsuitable shoes flew off. However, she was a good sport and so
danced without them. I spun her a little faster each turn of the dances just to test her
limitations. I thought at the time that Gill was glowering at me more than she often does.
It was only a couple of days later that she told me I had been dancing with the new
vicar's wife!