Calling on - Tommy Doyle's
DART has been great for a number of reasons. I’ll post a longer assessment later when I have had time to process some thoughts but we have had a whale of a time.
In dance terms I think we did well – certainly the judges’ comments suggest so. We are not here primarily to compete but to dance and to participate in the first of what the organisers hope will be an annual event. I’d like to think that we made friends and we have certainly enjoyed fine hopitality.
The photo to the right is of me calling on in the last of the pubs in which we danced – Tommy Doyle’s – and a video of this dance will appear on YouTube in a few days. The photo was taken by Sean Smith as was the one below. As the day went on I twigged that it was worth working the crowd in a way that I might not do at home and it seems to have been the right thing to do.
We also did a spot of guerrilla dancing – dancing in another pub in between two of the competition venues and collecting $50 in the hat in the process. I found this helpful because it turned the afternoon into a regular pub tour, albeit that the venues contained audiences (and other dancers) who helped to lift the atmosphere and fed back into the dance.
Mons Meg in Tommy Doyle's
In the evening there was a meal and a showcase where all the teams performed a dance on stage. In a break in proceedings, on a neighbouring table, Toronto Womens’ Sword started to sing, a capella and in close harmony. Entirely appropriately for the occasion they kicked off with “A Miner’s Life”
Union miners, stand together
Do not heed the Coal Board’s tale
Keep your hand upon your wages
And your eye upon the scale
They were stunning and entrancing and, for me, worth the price of the airtickets in themselves.
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