Folk Dancing in London

The first time I saw people folk dancing was at a Halloween party in 1978. This big guy in a Greek fisherman's cap was leading a dance with confidence and grace. The music was bouncy, lively and unforgettable. Intrigued, I joined in on the next dance as Bob Curry talked us all through the steps.

After a few dances I asked him where he had learned all these dances and he explained that he was a PE teacher and had gathered dances from many workshops over the years so that he could teach them to his PE students. He also mentioned that he taught folk dancing at a local recreation center in Ashland Oregon on Friday evening.

I talked to a few more people and got the details of this group. The following Friday my three young children and I attended our first folk dance.

Several people brought their children to folk dancing although the kids only danced two or three days all night. I liked that there were specific dances that included the kids and they enjoyed getting out with the adults and enjoying the dancing.

There was a nice side room with wide French doors where the kids played in between "kid" dances. Parents could keep an eye on them or take a break from dancing to be with them while still watching the rest of the dances. It was a great set up for families as well as people without children who could dance without someone's kids under foot.

Over the years folk dancing has been a big part of our lives. Two of my three children joined a children's folk dance troupe and performed in many festivals around Portland and up in Seattle.
I loved the dancing but I would not have continued with it is my children could not have been involved.


So here I am back in London and I have been looking for activities I can participate in outside of school. Not too far away in Camden Town is the Cecil Sharpe House which is a dancer's dream venue. There are half a dozen dance floors in this building all the way from as large as a basketball court, to dance studio size.

Each Friday evening a lovely group called Friday Feet meets in one of the medium size dance spaces. A group of 12-15 people attend each week, some new to dancing but many who have been folk dancing for many years. The teachers, Pam and Ann, are funny, gentle and excellent teachers. Very much like that big guy 31 years ago who showed my children and I what fun could be had at folk dancing.

Fall Finally?

When I first was offered a job in London I had visions of rainy, gray days and pea-soup fogs. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest so I am no stranger to rain, gray and fog and none of them bother me. I have always thought of thick layers of cloud or fog like a warm fuzzy blanket laying over the city.

So it has come as a surprise to find that London is not at all as it is portrayed in movies and television. We have more sunny days and less rain than Portland Oregon.

The British Isles are surrounded by water which helps keep us more temperate but what really makes us warmer than the Pacific Northwest is the ocean currents and winds. Often weather fronts that come up the Easter seaboard of the US continue up and over to the British Isles. We also get warm fronts that come up the west coast of Africa.

London itself is in the south east corner of the island and weather fronts coming across the Atlantic must pass over Ireland and western England before hitting us. More often than not the weather front dies out before it reaches London. At other times the winds sweep weather fronts up and away from London, hitting northern England and Scotland on their way to Norway and Sweden.

So even though London is at the same latitude as the northern tip of Vancouver Island, our weather is closer to that of Virginia.

However, our nights are finally getting cooler and a bit of rain has come our way but this has been a very mild fall and November could pass for September. Until today, I was still seeing people out in shirt sleeves or light jackets. It has been a very lovely fall!

(Pictures above of the Swiss Cottage Leisure Centre and the view from my classroom on 23 Nov. 2009)

Inherit the Wind (Photograph: Tristram Kenton)

I love going to plays, both dramas and musicals, and what better place to live if you like the theatre than in London UK. They have arguably the best in stage offerings of anywhere in the world. Broadway in New York is good but ask any actor in the world and they would love to come to London to appear in a West End production.

Typically when I am in the mood for a play I hop the tube down to Leister Square to my favorite ticket booth to get cheap tickets. I am careful not to get tickets so cheap that I am sitting behind a pillar or so high in the rafters that it looks like flea circus but I do try to find a bargain if I can.

It is not often that I get tickets weeks in advance mainly because I am not that patient and worry that I will forget completely on the day. A day or two in advance is usually enough for me. So it has been a long month since I bought tickets for myself and 4 friends from school to attend Inherit the Wind starring Kevin Spacey.

The day finally arrived Saturday, 14 November! On the day one of the women who was attending phoned to tell me her cold had worsened and she was not up to getting out for the evening. I know she must have felt terrible to have missed our big night out.

The play and Mr Spacey's performance did not disappoint. The writing was quick, sharp and witty. The deliveries were natural and relaxed. The play is set the southern US (although it was not mentioned it is based on the Scope's 'Monkey Trial' held in Tennessee) and the dialog was delivered with strong southern accents. Most of the actors were able to master the slow slurs of the southern accent expect for one or two times when a decidedly British vowel popped out.

We laughed and marveled at how timely the dialog still is today and we enjoyed the way Mr Drummond (Spacey) could turn a phase and use his opponents words to prove his own case. It was thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish!

The four of us then road the bus home together chatting and marveling at the Christmas lights that were turned on last weekend on Regents and Oxford streets (big shopping area in central London).

Since the British do not celebrate Thanksgiving they don't have the tradition of waiting until the Friday after to start the Christmas shopping season. They just barely recognize Halloween (although it is growing each year) so the Christmas season begins in early November.

It was a lovely evening, great company and fantastic entertainment.

Night Life

Night Life might be a bit deceptive a heading for this post or maybe just for me. I am not much of a night person. I like to get home before dark, curl up with the TV or a newspaper and veg out. After spending my days in the company of 13-14 year olds, a bit of solitude is in order.

However, you can't have much of a social life if you hole up in your flat every night alone. So I have made some concessions this year. I try of go out to the pub with my mates on Friday night for awhile and I have joined a folk dance group. They also meet on Friday night so I won't spend too long in the pub, but then I rarely drink anything stronger than lemonade so there is not much to worry about.

The folk dance group is an enjoyable mix of women and men all of whom seem to have been dancing for many years. To my surprise on my first night attending, I knew all the dances but one. They teach each dance so even that one went well but it really reminded me why I have loved folk dancing all these years.

Folk dancing will also help me get in better shape, not that I am in bad shape living in London without a car, but don't we all think we need to lose just a little weight and get in better shape?

Saturday night I am going with a group of friends from work to see Kevin Spacey in Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic Theatre. We have had these tickets for a month and are all so excited to finally be going to the play. Three of us will go out to dinner first then all meet at the theatre.

Sunday I plan to go see a movie. I have not gone to the cinema in at least a month and have missed some movies I wanted to see. Instead I have been going to Markets around London and exploring other parts of the city. Time to spend some time in my own patch and relax!

Remember, remember the 5th of November!

Tonight is Guy Fawkes Night here in England. This is a holiday that might take some newcomers by surprise. What happened on 5 November 1605 and why do they celebrate it each year with fireworks and burning some poor bloke in effigy in a bonfire?

Henry VIII left the Catholic Church and established the Church of England in about 1534. Although he always thought of himself as a Catholic, the laws passed to establish him as head of the Church of England lead later monarchs to impose increasingly harsher penalties and restrictions on anyone who remained Catholic. These restrictions lead to unrest among Catholics and their mistreatment under the law and in public.

Guido Fawkes (aka Guy) was a Catholic and member of a group opposing the restrictions on Catholics. This group decided to get rid of Protestant rule in England by blowing up Parliament with King James I, all the Lords and members of Parliament inside.

Guy was not the leader of this group but simply the man given the task of lighting the barrels of gunpowder the group had secreted in the basement of the Parliament building. He was a latter day suicide bomber if you will.

However, someone in the terrorist group decided to send a note to one Catholic MP suggesting he go back to his home county in case something happened. At first the warning letter was thought to be a hoax but it was finally taken to Kind James who informed the authorities.

When the guards went to explore the basement they discovered Guy leaving and found barrels of gunpowder hidden under stacks of firewood and coal. Guy was tortured for several days in an effort to obtain the names of the other conspirators but when he finally talked he gave only the names of those already caught or dead.

He and the other members were tried in January of 1606 and sentenced to hang. Guy was the last to be taken to the gallows but jumped before he could be hanged and broke his neck.

For several years after the Gunpowder Rebellion, bonfires where lit to celebrate the survival of the monarchy.

For the past week fireworks have been heard going off each night around London but tonight, 5 November, will be a celebration to rival our 4th of July in the US.

The Markets of London

Fall in London is a great time of year to visit the various markets of a weekend. Not only are they the perfect place to find unusual and/or hand-made gifts, there are always food stalls to fill you up with exotic dishes and yummy pastries.

This past week I went off to the Greenwich Market in Greenwich UK. This market excursion can be coupled with a walk up to the Royal Observatory to stand on the Prime Meridian or a visit to the Maritime Museum with it's rooms of Nelson artifacts if you want to make a day of it.

The Greenwich Market itself is row after row of small stalls selling jewelry, leather bags, hand-made soaps, knitted hats and scarves, metalwork, woodwork, and more. There are food stall selling British, Thai and Indian cuisine and a baked goods shop with huge cookies, brownies and custards.

I wandered around for about two hours before settling down for a bowl of hot soup and Italian bread. I did buy two pairs of silver ear rings for myself but was looking for a beaded bracelet I had seen on one of the other teachers at my school. I didn't find that stall - maybe they were just not there this weekend or maybe they were there but had sold out of the beaded bracelets. I will go back in a few weeks to see if they are there again.

This next weekend I plan to go the the Spittlefield Market which is near the Liverpool Station in Northeast London. I will report back with more information. I still need to get over to the Borough Market near London Bridge on the south side of the Thames and the famous Porobella Rd Market. There are so many!! (see map above!)

If there is something in London you would like me to look at and report back, please let me know.