Now that the festival season is upon us I would strongly recomend musicians to skip one of your lessons or sessions to attend a dance class or a ceili.
Not only is it a good thing in itself but by putting the music in its context you'll learn more about rhythm and phrasing in a short (enjoyable) time
Pack your dancing boots alongside your instrument and get stuck in
Good reminder Alancorsini. Do you know the song from "Shall We Dance", the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical from 1937? The Gershwins said it well:
Drop that long face. Come on. Have your fling.
Why keep nursing the blues?
If you want this old world on a string,
Put on your dancing shoes. Stop wasting time.
Put on your dancing shoes. Watch your spirits climb.
Shall we dance, or keep on moping?
Shall we dance and walk on air?
Shall we give in to despair?
Or shall we dance with never a care?
Life is short. We're growing older.
Don't you be an also ran.
You've got to dance, little lady. Dance, little man.
Dance whenever you can.
The dancing might be a bit different, but the idea is the same:
Richard Thompson's "Two Left Feet" would suit me better.
Humiliation is playing at a ceilidh and having the female dance caller dragging you down into the audience to demonstrate the steps. Doesn't half encourage the wall-flowers though when they see they could hardly make bigger idiots of themselves.
Two left feet is a good thing Bren, makes for much more interesting dancing... I'm sure you'd be a kick out on the dance floor... I'd rather dance for the craic than with some stiff persnickity sort with no patience for imperfection or laughter. For me the soul you bring to the dance, the spirit and humour, is far more important than any collection of fancy steps of moves... So, two left feet is cool...
Not so sure Alan about musicians joining the dancers! Have you never been in a situation where six or so of you are playing for a floor full of dancers when the caller, short of a couple here and there, starts poaching some of the group? Eventually you're left on fiddle along with a flute player trying to compete with an ever noisier floor of battering dancers - not a very comfortable experience I can assure you.
BTW we won't have this problem in Monkstown next Wednesday if you can make it - also you might mention it to Seán.
Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Now that the festival season is upon us I would strongly recomend musicians to skip one of your lessons or sessions to attend a dance class or a ceili.
Not only is it a good thing in itself but by putting the music in its context you'll learn more about rhythm and phrasing in a short (enjoyable) time
Pack your dancing boots alongside your instrument and get stuck in
# Posted on June 17th 2007 by Alancorsini
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Good reminder Alancorsini. Do you know the song from "Shall We Dance", the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musical from 1937? The Gershwins said it well:
Drop that long face. Come on. Have your fling.
Why keep nursing the blues?
If you want this old world on a string,
Put on your dancing shoes. Stop wasting time.
Put on your dancing shoes. Watch your spirits climb.
Shall we dance, or keep on moping?
Shall we dance and walk on air?
Shall we give in to despair?
Or shall we dance with never a care?
Life is short. We're growing older.
Don't you be an also ran.
You've got to dance, little lady. Dance, little man.
Dance whenever you can.
The dancing might be a bit different, but the idea is the same:
Dance whenever you can!
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by John Culhane
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Richard Thompson's "Two Left Feet" would suit me better.
Humiliation is playing at a ceilidh and having the female dance caller dragging you down into the audience to demonstrate the steps. Doesn't half encourage the wall-flowers though when they see they could hardly make bigger idiots of themselves.
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by Bren
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Unfortunately Alan, while we are in agreement here, for some that's like threatening them with a root canal without anaesthesia... The whooses...
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Damn, I'd have never guessed it, Bren's a whoos?
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by ceolachan
Two left feet is a good thing Bren, makes for much more interesting dancing... I'm sure you'd be a kick out on the dance floor... I'd rather dance for the craic than with some stiff persnickity sort with no patience for imperfection or laughter. For me the soul you bring to the dance, the spirit and humour, is far more important than any collection of fancy steps of moves... So, two left feet is cool...
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by ceolachan
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
And also, John Culhane:
You don't know what you're losin'
By always refusin'
To dance with me........
ceolachan, the movie Best In Show, in which the character played by Eugene Levy ACTUALLY had two left feet.
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by oldstrings
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Or even worse, having a male caller "drag" you onto the floor.
(I should rephrase that to say a same-gender caller - I don't want to insinuate all band musicians are male, nor confuse sex and gender)
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by geoffwright
Re: Dance, Dance wherever you may be . . .
Not so sure Alan about musicians joining the dancers! Have you never been in a situation where six or so of you are playing for a floor full of dancers when the caller, short of a couple here and there, starts poaching some of the group? Eventually you're left on fiddle along with a flute player trying to compete with an ever noisier floor of battering dancers - not a very comfortable experience I can assure you.
BTW we won't have this problem in Monkstown next Wednesday if you can make it - also you might mention it to Seán.
# Posted on June 18th 2007 by Bannerman