72 - Devon Folk

Alive &Kicking in AmericaJulie Page tells of her group'srecent visit toAmerica, the result of achance encounter atDartington..It'sSunday, 13th April, 2003, and Alive &KickingAppalachian Clog group from Exeter are on ajetbound for the U.S.A. ....Only eleven months earlier, I had been sitting inthe sunshine at Dartington Cider Press Centre,keeping an eye on the instruments with Jackie,another of our dancers, when we heard Americanvoices exclaiming over our poster advertising ourAppalachian Clog dance display. We got intoconversation and discovered they were with apartyof sixty American dancers staying at Dartington foracourse of English Renaissance Dance workshops.Two days later we met Peggy Leiby, adriving forceof Fiddlekicks, an American Appalachian Cloggroup who dance the Green Grass Cloggers' style,most popular with Appalachian dance groups herein the U.K. Steps, ideas and, most importantly,email addresses were swapped.... Now nearly all of our team of eight dancers, onereserve (who used to dance with us before she wentto college) and four musicians are en route toPhiladelphia, where we were to stay as guests ofFiddlekicks, swapping dances and steps, performingwith them, and attending workshops led byAppalachian Dancer, Tom Hinds, and Cape BretonDancer, Malke Rosenfeld.About four hours into our flight Frances decidesthat we cannot let the opportunity of joining the'mile high dance club' slip by, so Ijoin her on athree foot square space outside the loos where wemanage to perform our 'couple dance' to ahummedaccompaniment - our first mid-Atlantic performance! Our spirits were still amile high when wewere met at the airport by Fiddlekicks, andwhisked away to stay with our various hosts aroundthe city.Monday 14th April and Peggy's wonderful barn,150 years old, freshly spring-cleaned and completewith raised wooden floor donated by an Irish dancegroup, was the venue for our first dance swap.Americans generally only have two weeks paidholiday ayear, so only afew Fiddlekicks dancerscould join us at the beginning of the week, buteverything was video-taped for the absent members.We were careful only to teach our ownchoreographed dances, feeling rather shy aboutteaching Americans an English 'take' on an Appala-chian Dance, but they loved it !That evening both groups started to get toknow each other at a 'bring a dish' supper,followed by an impromptu dance in Peggy'sbarn. The A&K Band loved the acoustics andthe dancers were all still as high as kites justto be there -only jet lag eventually stopped usdancing !Tuesday 15th April was our sight-seeing day.Some of our hosts drove us to New Yorkwhere we crossed the Hudson on the StatenIsland Ferry and toured Manhatten on anopen-top bus.Wednesday 16th April saw more step anddance swaps in Peggy's Barn, and in theevening A&K danced a short display at anEnglish Country Dance. This is the type ofdance we learn at primary school, and ourhosts could not believe that we don't all danceit habitually at home. Some of their regularmusicians were away, so Sue, one of ourfiddle players, joined the band for theevening, to play English Country Dance forAmerican aficionados and Appalachian ClogMusic for the mad English.BIDEFORDFOLK CLUBEveryThursdayat theJOINERS ARMSMarket PlaceBIDEFORDWeekly singaroundand music sessionOccasional guestsDetails from:Hilary Bix01237 4707924PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com