The first bits easy enough. Just let the crowd drift in and settle down, discuss the latest gossip, what was on TV last night, what the kid’s are up to and so on. But whilst they’re doing this get them to do a basic set of warm-up exercises. By the time you’re ready to start you’ve got a fair idea of what you can do for the evening, if you’re lucky it might even fit with the plan you had as you walked in the door!
Once we’re settled down we run a set of display dances trying to get everyone up at least once in the sequence. In our team we like to build up the repertoire for dancers in layers. The aim for a new dancer is to get four dances learnt off pat before they dance out and generally we suggest two and let the dancer choose the other two. So this first session should give everyone a chance to get up and dance and also gives a feel for the pressure of a display spot. It’s part memory test, part stamina test and part confidence builder. Learners get a chance to try out their new skills, developers can try moving around the set or trying a new (to them) dance and old hands can watch for style points that might need attention.
Next we move on to some solid teaching sessions. These could be a repetition and reinforcement of a dance we worked on last week, a start on teaching a dance in the existing repertoire for the benefit of newcomers or a completely new dance. One thing I try and avoid is spending more than twenty minutes on any one dance. Any odd bodies not dancing will quickly get bored, and cold, if we go on any longer. Also too many repetitions of the same movement can quickly produce strains and injuries if it goes on too long, and anyway there’s always next week to finish off or reinforce the teaching of any one dance.
When teaching a dance I always try and give a short run down of what history I know about the dance as the set sorts itself out. After all every team member ought to be able to answer the basic questions from the public with something other than “Dunno ask golden gob”. Then again knowing something of the history helps to give a sense of what we’re doing and why we do it and that can’t be bad can it? While we’re sorting out the set we also try and match dancers so that learners get an experienced dancer as partner. For some strange reason new dancers seem to come in pairs and they always seem to want to dance together. Hopeless! It may seem cruel but split them up and that way you might keep one or even both. I also encourage learners to stick to the same spot in the set for every dance - it’s one less thing to worry about. Developers and old hands are encouraged to put themselves about a bit which gives maximum scope for the learners to stick to one position and also adds to flexibility when you do get out next season.
Trying to pitch the level of teaching to suit the set that’s on the floor can be a problem. It might seem tedious, but explaining just what a hey or a ladies chain is might be vital if a learner is going to succeed. And sometimes it helps to actually abandon the set altogether and form a line or a circle to concentrate on a specific element of the dance. Yes we do this for the very basic cross polka that is the basic building block of a lot of our dances. Dancing is about body memory and isolating out elements so that they become second nature can make the learning of figures and dances so much easier. I’ll even suggest the “Irish Step” method or “look Ma no hands” for some dancers when they’re learning. Get the right stepping, get to the right place in the set and you’re on your way, hand movements can come later.
When I’m teaching I usually find there’s a general level of background noise from the team. I’ve learnt to live with it. After all Morris is just as much a social activity as a learning one. Just so long as the chat is constructive that’s all I ask. Helping a learner out with an explanation of what’s just been described, having a quite gossip or finding out what the new comers do for a living it’s all team building isn’t it? But I try and draw the line at open criticism of other dancers. Yes we need to criticise but too much can destroy even the most optimistic beginner. Better a pennyweight of praise and a little criticism than nothing but negative feed back. Plus which quite often a team foul-up will be blamed on the newest dancer – wrong! The team screws up, means the team got it wrong. If a dancer gets up to do a dance they don’t know then the fault is with the team or the dance master not with the dancer.
Of course shouting can help and even be a little therapeutic on occasion. But generally I try and work with a bit of humour in there to leaven the load. When we get to a completely new dance or a dance that has been on the back boiler for a year or two we need it. You may have a set of notes or even a video but the musicians don’t like the tune or the dancers don’t think this or that movement is physically possible. If it’s a new dance for the team then adapt, if it’s a dance you’re reviving then still be prepared to adapt, the tradition has to evolve to live. The best answer is to trust the team if they’re happy then it will show in the dance and if they’re not it will still show in the dance and that’s definitely to be avoided.
So end of the evening coming up and time for home – or the pub. I usually try and finish off with a couple of solid dances again aiming to get everyone up on their feet. By the time the lights go out the team should be happy. New comers have found out more about the team in general and have leant something and spotted the dance they want to learn next. Developers have built up a bit more confidence and stretched their knowledge a bit further. The old hands have managed to pass on their knowledge and shown just how it should be done. And the dance master? He’s just hoping he can get away with it all again next week.