[IVFDF] [IVFDF]: Content

[chris.j.broan at bnfl.com]

Personally, I go to IVFDF mainly for the ceilidhs. They're usually the
best
ones I get to all year, even though we do have quite a lot going on
locally
& I go to Sidmouth. They're certainly the only ceilidhs I get to where I'm
actually above the average age & that's a great change.

In terms of workshops, what I like to have at IVFDF is mainly lots of
international dance styles, rather than multiple types of English and
Morris.  Do people think the intermediate workshops are worthwhile?  I
always feel that I can do the styles I know at home; I come to IVFDF to
learn something new.  and trying something three years in a row still
leaves you a beginner :)
I rather like the morris workshops- Cotswold morris at least is so diverse
that you almost always encounter something new. Having done quite a lot of
morris in the "real world" (assuming any morris comes from the real world)
I like the intermediate workshop. However, I very much doubt 3 years of
beginners workshops alone would be enough to make anyone more than a
beginner, at morris or anything else. I've usually forgotton everything I
learnt at a workshop by the following year if I don't have a chance to
practice in between IVFDFs.

I would prefer to have some breaks, even if they are only half an hour.
I know (I remember!) how hard it is to schedule all the workshops, but
there are inevitably sessions when there's nothing you particularly want
to do, and sessions when you want to do three things at once.  When you
then have to skip something interesting so you can eat, it's very
frustrating.
Makes sense, & may help the organisers a bit.

Ever since I've been doing IVFDF, there have always been three dances on
the Saturday night, usually a formal English, a formal Scottish and an
English ceilidh.  Is this the best way?  Are there enough numbers going
to each?  I always feel it splits people up rather uncomfortably.  Given
that the Scottish (and probably the Playford) types want to do some
"real" dancing, and it's impossible to get a band who can do everything,
can anyone think of a better answer?
Combining the scottish & any of the others is likely to be very difficult
since that tradition does not have a caller & the other 2 can't really
function without one.

Probably not helpfully,
Chris



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