Come and play with bourrée formations again
As we recombine after summer holidays and heat waves, for October’s Eurosession workshop we welcome Andrew Swaine, with Anna Pack, and Jo Veal. See more about the workshop below, and join us on Thursday for some interesting adventures in the land of bourrées.
Does the description sound familiar? Some of us sampled this workshop in January, but extreme weather meant that only a select group of people were able to experience the fascinating bourrées, and we promised to have Andrew back when more people would be able to attend. It’s time!
As usual, we’ll follow the workshop with a more eclectic Eurosession, in which you can contribute dance tunes, request your favourite dance, or relax, get a drink, and chat. For the workshop and for dancing, we recommend wearing comfortable shoes that can turn easily. And of course, bring an instrument if you’d like to play in the session.
Workshop: 8pm – 9pm
Eurosession: 9pm – 11pm
Venue: Shakespeare’s Pub ~ S3 8UB
About the workshop
Credit: Sawney White Bird on YouTube
If you are interested in shapes and tessellating movements, this will be a great workshop to get to. Bourrées are often danced opposite a partner, coordinating between partners to swap position and introduce variations. In this workshop, building on that basic framework, you can learn some interesting bourrées for larger numbers of dancers, improve your capacity for nifty turns, practice moving with unflustered smoothness, and give your brain a minor workout in readiness for the year to come.
Andrew Swaine is a caller who is a whizz at guiding a large roomful of people through complicated shapes for ceilidhs, contra and playford as well as balfolk.
Anna Pack is a musician and dancer who performs and teaches immensely danceable traditional music on diatonic accordion.
Jo Veal plays clarinet with a variety of dance bands and improvisational ensembles, and communicates expressively and creatively in her playing.
Donations
We suggest £5 for the workshop and/or the session. Any extra helps us to offer affordable entry to our events, and provide fair fees to our experts and helpers. We accept cash, or PayPal transfers (see our donations page), or you can instead contribute by teaching or playing for dancing.
Caring for others
We welcome diversity in our community, and encourage you to look out for everyone’s well-being.
Get involved
If you like organising gigs, getting publicity out, playing for or teaching a workshop, or can offer any photographs we could use in publicity, then we’d love to hear from you.
* * * Save the date: Naragonia in Sheffield! * * *
Eurosession will be hosting Naragonia on Sun 6 December, in the Hillsborough Park Pavilion. Mark your diaries for magical music, mazurkas and more!
See you soon, x Eurosesh