TRE - Comhaltas Archive

TREOIRLichfield I rish WeekendAn outsider's look-in on set dancing.We escaped the grey rainy afternooninto the baronial splendour of theGuildhall, lichfield - two set dancingnovices looking forward to aninteresting and active afternoon. Wefound John Holian, quietly, courteouslyand persistently encouraging a mixedgroup of people in the arts and skillsof this magic dance. With unrelentingpace he taught us about steps,formations and eventually thesubtleties of various regional dancestyles. Tirelessly he explained anddemonstrated until our vocabularywas widened to include new meaningsfor the words three quarter house,half seven. ladies chain and advance.Set Dance Ceili, The Guildhall,8 o'clockAs we entered, the hall was full ofpeople dancing gracefully to the musicof O·Carolan. played by the LichfieldCeilf band. That was followed by themore energetic Ballyvourney Jig Set,during which we more or lesssucceeded in practising our newfoundskills. In the course of ourmanoeuvrings a ladies pop socksuddenly appeared on the floor in themiddle of the dancers and causedmuch amusement and quizzical looks.After the dance John lifted it up andposed two questions"What is this?" and "Whose is this?"No brave soul offered to answer thesecond question.We watched for a bit as the expertsenjoyed sliding, stepping and glidingeffortlessly through sets like TheBallyduff and The Caledonian. A majordifference between us novices and theexperts seemed to be economy ofmovement. We ended up red faced andgasping for air at the end of each set.They barely had a hair out of place!And the music continued. Fast, expertrenditions of jigs, reels and hornpipesfilled the hall with a beautiful balancedsound. John noticed us sitting outenjoying the scene and approached."Do you want to try something wedid this afternoon?" he offered. Sokind of him, but I wasn't sure I couldremember anything I had done in theafternoon. I must have looked blank."We'll try the Corofin:' he said."That's an easy one"He quickly refreshed our memories."First circle in, set, swing, half seven,full seven cross, home, three quarterhouse, ladies chain, pass out left.house around then swing. Got id" Imust have looked blanker still. "Right.I'll stand and talk you through it". Themusic started up. Off we went in thewrong direction. John appeared, mikein hand, issuing perfectly timedinstructions, which someone whoknew their right from their left wouldhave no trouble at all following. Iwasn't doing very well, obviously, assoon the other six dancers in the setall began offering help. "Cross now:'"In 1,2,3." We kept going. We enjoyedit. They all seemed to enjoy it! Theband was certainly enjoying playing. Somany helpful people. New friends.Tolerance. Brilliant music. That'sanother part of the magic of thisdance. You don't have to be able to doit to do it!- Submitted by Barbara Ross, Uch~eldCCl, Photographs submitted by lanBradshaw, Uch~eld cctThe Traditions alive inthe city of Lady Godiva!Nestling in the heart of the Midlands,the industrial City of Coventry haslong been a haven for Irish cultureand it was in 1971 that a dedicatedband of traditional music enthusiastsformed Coventry CCE; to encourageand promote Irish Music and Culture.The branch seisiun is always wellattended by musicians and otherbranch members. Instruments playedare button key accordion, whistle andlow whistle; flutes, fiddles, banjo,guitar, bodhran and we had a visitfrom an uilleann pipe player. Tunes anddances from last week's branch Ceilfwere to the fore.The branch meets on a Tuesday nightfrom 8.00 pm at The Four ProvincesClub,Allesley Old Road, Coventry.Lessons are taught on the ButtonAccordion, Whistle, Bodhran, Banjoand Fiddle.A monthly seisiun is also) .. ~Coventry CCt. enjoying themselves at the FridayNight seisiun, Hughie McGovem Weekend.Letterkenny 200Sheld on the firstTuesday of each month.The aim of the branch remains similarto that at its inception in 1971: toencourage and pass on musictraditions to adults and children inCoventry. However, the maindifference today is that more thirdand forth generation Irish arediscovering their native culture.Coventry musicians each April visitLetterkenny. Co. Donegal for ScoilEarraigh Hughie McGovern, which is a43