Start date: August 5, 2017
End date: August 11, 2017
Time: 12:00 am - 12:00 am

There will be a week of afternoon workshops on the Pat Shaw legacy at Sidmouth Folk Week 2017. We also plan to hold a Pat Shaw Ball one evening. The workshops will be led by John Sweeney, known for his well researched approach to dance. The music will be provided by Ali Messer (accordion) and Jane Harrison (violin).

John, “As well as being an amazing choreographer himself, Pat Shaw researched and interpreted dances from 17th, 18th and early 19th century Dancing Masters, including Playford of course. He also researched traditional English dances collected in the early 20th century. The daily workshops will cover all these aspects of this 20th century Dancing Master.”

Jane, ” I met Pat at an early age as he visited us in Sheffield but I remember him most clearly from the Burton Manor Summer Schools where we learned many of his dances and I still have the the manuscript book I copied down his tune for K&E. I remember clearly him teaching Punk’s Delight (Playford) in the year when punk came into fashion. My father’s dance collecting work in Shetland complemented that of Pat’s earlier work on Shetland music and influenced my own playing since I was taken to see the Forty Shetland Fiddlers age 10 and went on to learn from (the famous) Tom Anderson.”

Ali, “My know how includes having played most of his compositions for dancing, including the material influenced by the US and the Dutch, plus an interest in his Playford reconstructions and the tunes he collected in Shetland”.

Also at Sidmouth Folk Week, Michael Barraclough will be running the following Pat Shaw related events:

Saturday: Long Live London at the Playford Ball – I was present at the World Premiere of this dance (the EFDSS London Area Dinner and Dance at Derry & Toms)

Sunday: Mr Beveridge’s Maggot at the “French Influence” ECD workshop. I have the same moves in the same order as Pat but with slightly different timing across the A1/A2

Tuesday or Thursday: La Ronde de L’Amour in either the “UK Nouvelle Cuisine 1” or the “Nouv elle Cuisine 2” ECD workshop

Michael says “Pat Shaw had a huge influence on me. I had not been dancing for long when I came across him at the Another Look at Playford classes at Cecil Sharp House. I had already received criticism for daring to criticise some of Cecil Sharp’s “Playford” interpretations but Pat Shaw’s series inspired me to ignore this and to continue researching and interpreting dances from the 17th and 18th centuries.”

More info: www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk

Sidmouth Folk Festival