Southampton Folk Orchestra will be playing in the beautiful St Lawrence church Winchester this Saturday May 7th at 12 midday and 3p.m as part of the Mayfest folk festival . Look out for dance teams across the city centre all day and performances in front of the Cathedral from 2:30 onwards during the afternoon. The weather looks good!
Category Archives: News
Stepping session at Earth Fest Minstead May 22nd
We’ll be running an informal stepping session in the New Forest on Sunday May 22nd at Earth Fest run by the Minstead Study Centre. Anyone welcome, no experience necessary: just bring willing feet and shoes you can hear yourself in! We’ll give you a few ideas to get you started then trust the irresistible tunes played by Cath Watkins and Gill Redmond of Jigfoot to do the rest! Tipi Field at 3 p.m. Check out our sessions and activities pages for background and videos of southern stepping, or follow this link to see children from Yateley after a 30 minute workshop.
Come dancing with FolkActive this Wednesday!
Having spent a month dancing with youngsters in Portsmouth schools, we’re back to our regular FolkActive dance for over 50s in Southampton this Wednesday April 13th. Well done the BBC and Angela Rippon for flagging up a study which proved that dancing was more beneficial than gym-based exercise!
Spring Ceilidh Project in Portsmouth Schools
On March 4th we’re headed for Portsmouth, for eight days of Ceilidh workshops in primary schools in the lead up to Easter. Portsmouth Music Hub are certainly committed to getting the city’s children involved in their folk dance heritage!
Broom and Ceilidh Dance Workshops at the Solent Cultural Conference on February 5th.
We’re looking forward to teaching broom and ceilidh dance workshops at the Solent Cultural Conference organised by Portsmouth and Southampton Music Hubs for teachers in both cities and beyond. It takes place on Friday February 5th, the venue is Portsmouth Guildhall and there’s a really exciting range of workshops on offer, followed in the evening by a BSO concert. The complete experience!
FolkActive trade stand at the Hampshire Music Hub Conference
We’re looking forward to meeting teachers from a wide range of Hampshire schools at Hampshire Music Hub’s Especially Wessex Music Conference at the Ageas Bowl on Friday January 29th. As Hub partners, we’ve been invited to have a trade stand so will be displaying our wares as well as advertising the English Folk Song and Dance Society’s amazing educational resources.
The range of workshops on offer is fantastic, ranging from beat boxing through ukulele and recorder playing, to Jo May’s spoons workshop with Linda Game on fiddle. Can’t wait!
Over 50s FolkActive dance this Wednesday
We hope you all had a lovely Christmas break and are looking forward to the first FolkActive Dance of 2016.
We’ll be at Freemantle Community Centre on Wednesday January 13th and our regular caller Graham is back from his world travels to take us through the dances.
Cath and Gill from Jigfoot will be providing the live music so you might not be able to resist a bit of local stepping within with the social dances. Dancing is good for you!
Wednesday 13th January 1.30pm to 3.30pm
Freemantle Community Centre, Randolph Street, Southampton SO15 1HE
Entry £4 per session
Refreshments available
Winter Warmer Dance and Concert, Saturday 9th January with Southampton Folk Orchestra, Four Marks Folk Band and caller John Miller
Saturday 9th January 2016 7.30 – 10.30 pm
Twyford Parish Hall, Hazeley Road, Twyford, Winchester SO21 1QY
Dance the Christmas excesses away to the combined forces of Southampton Folk Orchestra and Four Marks Folk Band, with expert calling from John Miller to guide you through the dances, and short concert spots from each group separately and together.
Light refreshments and soft drinks will be served, bring your own alcohol.
Entry by donation – all money collected will go to the Muze Trust, supporting music education in Zambia
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Last FolkActive Dance of the year coming up on November 11th.
It’s our last of our monthly dances for over 50s of 2015 next Wednesday. We’ll take a break in December and then we’ll be back at Freemantle Community Centre, Randolph Street, Southampton SO15 3HE on Wednesday 13th January 2016. Regular caller Graham is in South America at the moment so Jo Harmer will be calling the dances this month.
Portsmouth Primary Schools Ceilidh Day October 21st
Children from eight primary schools in Portsmouth come together this week for a ceilidh, in the culmination of a country dance project run by FolkActive, the Folk Association of South Hants and Portsmouth Music Education Hub.
Traditionally, a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee) is a social gathering which can include music, dancing, song and storytelling. Although Celtic in origin, the word ceilidh is now used regularly across the British Isles to describe lively community dances often known as barn dances.
Over 200 children aged 5 to 11 will be dancing to music played by Jigfoot at Milton Park Primary School, and we hope this will mark a positive step towards getting more schools actively re-engaged in this rich area of our culture.