Grapevine-Oct 2010 2

Travellers – 2010 - where did they go?For quite a few of the Group, 2010 was a year fortravelling; Martin and Pam went to the UK, Franceand Spain; Laurel and Pat went to France, as didPalenque and Damon and John too before heading offto the Sabor in Bulgaria, although in Palenque’s casethey detoured to Iceland. Not really the most directroute!ate & talked, as cool as cucumbers. Then Palenque &Damon appeared with their trays, which I realise nowwas all quite a co-incidence, when I think of all the placeswe could have sat!!"Workshops ran all day, though starting at therespectable hour of 10am! and not finishing til 6 or7pm as I recall but with a lunch break of 2 hours. Theevening bals didn't start til 9pm. There was often aperformance before this, but I only made it to watchone of these.Palenque's GennetinesSome of the workshops were very crowded - almostunbearable with all those bodies adding to the alreadyhot hall, though once the side walls were removed,sometimes the temperature could be brought down.But on day 3 or 4 when it rained, all the walls wentup again to prevent the rain and mud getting in, but itwas still very hot and humid inside! We found a greatplace to recover, 'in the woods'. Wellnot literally.but at the far end of the festival was ashady peaceful place where people met to eat, sleep,& play music.In July I spent a week at Gennetines, le Grand Bald'Europe ('the big European dance'), a folk dancefestival held in central France every July. The festivalis held on a farm about 15km north of the town ofMoulins, not far from the village of Gennetines. Thearea is agricultural and right in the middle of Francegeographically. Several thousand (up to 3500) peoplegather on the site for 8 days of festivities. Camping isthe accommodation, and ten dance hall tents are setup in the main festival site. Meals are catered unlessyou want to camp cook for yourself.Thechoiceofworkshopswas:Israeli Basque Italian Cajun Catalan BretonArgentinean Tango English country dance PlayfordBouree's Fandango Greek Gavotte (Breton tight armhold style) Irish Set Dancing Mazurkas Polka PolskaPortugal Provence Quebec Renaissance Saut Basque(just western French side of Basque country) S/WFrance Waltz Circle dance with French singing chantSwedish Swiss & many more, including manydifferent French traditions from different parts of thecountry.All roads led to Gennetines though and we all met upthere for a week at the ‘Grand Bal de l’Europe’ wherewe were joined by none other than Pam Massey andher French friend Jo.The above introduction does little justice to somegreat journeys, so we’ve included some words fromthe horses’ mouth – as it were!There were eight Perth International Folk Dancers atthis festival this year (more than ever before), and Icopy in a few words from Pam Massey who iscurrently living in England about arrival evening atthe festival:"The system for meals so that no-one on site had to dealwith cash, was that when we bought our festival ticket forthe week, we also bought enough orange meal tickets @ 8euros each & green drink tickets @ 1 euro each, to feedus the entire week. Coffee & teas were only half a ticket.Beerwasonlyoneticket.Then the queue; either the meat or the vegetarian queues,that moved reasonably fast considering the number ofpeoplethevolunteershadtofeed.We wandered off with our first meal on our trays. Outsidethe hall where the Israeli dancing had been was a grassyarea with some trees, tables & benches. All the tableswere occupied, but there was one bench with just one manon it. He had his back to us & was wearing a black hat,black T.shirt, & black trousers. We headed for the otherend of the bench. He looked up. ‘Hello Pam Massey’ hesaid. I looked down. ‘Hello John Whaite’ I replied. WeGrapevine – October 2010Workshops were rated 1, 2 or 3 stars, with 3 stars themost difficult. I did some of an Israeli workshop, aGreek workshop, some Italian and Catalan dancing,some Breton, Mazurka and waltz variations,Estonian, polska and the highlight for me wasprobably the Difficult-rated Basque workshop wherewe learned a dance traditionally danced at funeralsand a set dance for 8 people that was a physicalchallenge, with its highly balletic leg movements, andratherfastchangesofdirection.Again a quote from prolific writer friend Pam: "I'dsay pretty much everyone there were dancers, at differentlevels. But hardly a total beginner was my impression.There were some 'folkie' looking types, but there werealso very conventional middle aged couples who havebeen brought up with a tradition of dancing their regionaldance, as in most European countries this tradition iskept alive far more than in England or Australia. Nice."Anyway, the dancing was great fun, thoughworkshops mostly on the easy side. The mostamazing thing about it, is it is almost entirely done4Page

to live music, not only evening bals, but also theworkshops all day, and in the case of one talentedBreton Monsieur, the button accordeon player is themusic, the singer AND the dance teacher AMAZING!Bals and Fest Noz's were in all 10 places between 911pm, 11pm-1am, & I believe 1-3am, though I'm nottalking from personal experience on that last one asunfortunately I had an English cold for pretty muchthe whole festival so I gave myself a curfew in orderto last the week!! Drinks, hot and cold got served allevening, through the drink tickets system, and ourfavourite was a champers bottle of cider to share withfriends over dinner! I danced a lot of French dance ofall sorts, though the highlight of the evening bals wasprobably a Breton Fest Noz - where I was draggingup memories of Breton dances from 13 years ago,and managing to keep up with the really experiencedfamily crowd - from teenagers to grandparents alldancing together often in small circles. Anotherhighlight was watching a young couple, dressed oh soindividually, the girl in a huge swirling skirt, dancinga bourree, the way I imagine it was never supposed tobe seen in courtly ballrooms - such sensuality for adance where one doesn't touch ones partner - it wasbeautiful to watch! Another highlight was the friendsmade - over dinner under the trees or on thedancefloor. We met and then often ate with, drankwith and danced with the young Estonian crew dancers and musicians - who were a great laugh.Another quote from Pam, I thought you might findinteresting gives a taste of how the festival is run entirely on volunteers: "This was followed by MrGennetines himself, holding a meeting in same tent todiscuss ideas for future festivals. I was rather stuck in thetent & couldn't make a discrete exit, so looked upon it asa French lesson.and a rest. I caught little bits: keywords that enabled me to guess the topic. Mr Gennetine'sstory is not dis-similar to the English GlastonburyFestival - both farmers organising a festival on theirland. Mr. G. looks about 50. In 1990 or so, his parentswent on holiday, & he had a party, inviting lots of people,& putting up a marquee. Maybe there was Boureedancing too, as he was one of the performers in theBouree Spectacle. Anyhow, the local media got to hearabout it & sent the local TV camera's there. His parentssaw it on TV & on their return asked if he knew anythingabout it!! That was the beginning of the GennetineFestival, & now it is very impressively organised yearafter year, with a system that works, & always open tonew ideas, hence the open forum meeting in the tent.MembershipsAs we approach the end of the year it’s time tothink about renewing your membership for 2011.Some members already have!Membership RenewalName:Address:Phone:Email:My special Dance Interests are:Payment for calendar year: 25 standard 20 concession ** Card type & number:Include my details on PIFDG contact listYES / NO‘NO’ will exclude you from emailed advice re events& dance informationPlease read the note below before signing. Passcompleted forms and payment to the Treasurersign herePlease read the following which is acondition of Group Membership.I understand the need to warm up andstretch before and during the sessions. Ialso understand that it is my responsibilityto wear suitable footwear and ensure that Idance safely and within my capability.Please tear off this slip and return it with yourmembership fee to the TreasurerNote that the Group caries accident insurancefor members; the cost is included in theannual membership.Pam and Martin’s Sojourn – Europe 2010Grapevine – October 2010Page5

Overall we were away from Perth for 13 weeks,leaving on 13th May and returning on Friday 13thAugust!Nicole and John, a UK couple, who having arrivedon their tandem and ‘done’ Gennetines then headedoff for Switzerland across the Alps!Having bought a motor home in the UK we had awonderful holiday and completed almost 7, 500 km,mainly in France (Loire, Dordogne and east to westacross the Pyrenees to the Atlantic Coast) and Spainwhere we tracked the other way back across thePyrenees. With a largish motor home it meantkeeping away from large towns and cities, so we sawa lot of the real France and Spain. Magic!With Gennetines beckoning we decided to forgo theTour de France for another year and we headed north,visiting Foix, Carcassone, the Gorges of the Tarn andplaces like Le Puy en Velay on the way! After thedancing we headed west to Chinon, up to Mont SaintMichel and back to the ferry at Calais.Gennetines was billed as ‘le Grand Bal de l’Europe’and what a grand ball it was! Nine days, ten venues,over 450 workshops and 150 ‘bals’. In addition to amaze of French and Quebeçois dances the workshopsfeatured dance from Israel, Greece, Estonia, Spain,Italy, Portugal and a Celtic influence with Welsh andIrish groups, although the Welsh band only seemed tospeak French!! Thankfully the workshops didn’t startuntil 10:30 and less were scheduled in the afternoon– time for a well earned rest!!The ‘bals’, ‘balls’ to you, started at 9:30 each nightand went on, and on, and on, some finishing at 3 amapparently. I have to admit that after 5 days my bodycalled ‘enough’, and I had an evening off!!The rain! It really knows how to rain in that part ofFrance – the whole site was a quagmire for about 3days. Great cloud-scapes! No rainbows though!Another key image was how many people knew thedances and joined in with such enthusiasm; and somany men who were great dancers! So much livemusic too – even for most of the workshops.It was amazing how single-minded the French arewhen it comes to their dances; parochial some mightsay. Several times we heard tarantella being playedand we thought ‘great, we’ll do that one’, only to findout that there were over 100 people doing achoreographed bourrée to it! If it quacks like duckand walks like a duck, it must be a bourrée! HighlightsJohn and Palenque practising their newfandango steps in the rain!Meeting and talking to people from across Europewhose passion was dance. Lots of time to practiceour French too!Some of the Breton bals were just fabulous,especially those led by Bernard Loffet, accordionistand singer extraordinaire. He even led some danceswhile singing and playing, quite amazing. What atalent! Check him out on YouTube!One or two of the Estonian dances were pretty specialtoo, particularly a marching type of dance thatinvolved over a hundred people and looped andprogressed for about half-an-hour.The organisation was nothing short of brilliant and allthe more so because it was so low key. Rarely wereyou aware of the organisers but boy did they do itwell. Well done to everyone involved!Imagesclick here to link to more picturesGrapevine – October 2010Page6

More Images: John, below, trying to get the mostout of his 60th birthday dinner! Perhaps this was toget his energy levels up for his actual birthday thenext day which was spent driving to Barcelona; just750 km down the road! We hear his SatNav came inhandy and worked some of the time!!Hearing Amazing Grace being sung in Italian wasrally special for me and I also have some greatimages of people jamming around the site,particularly a big and very talented group playing andsinging in the rain about one week into the mission!With a wide range of instruments they went throughvarious eras including Beatles, Dylan and Simon &Garfunkel; mostly English but also some French withsome great ‘Piaf’ moments! Some of the Perth crowd with friends. (Laurel wastoo busy dancing and Pat was on her way home.) Palenque, acting the part of the refugee. Her tentleaked in the rain, and she and Damon moved itunder our camper-van awning to give someprotection. What no vegemite? So did everyone have a good time? Well we believeso, and if the skip full of empty bottles was anythingto go by, yes they did!!Grapevine – October 2010Would I go again? Let’s just say that all dancersshould experience at least one Gennetines. Pam and Ienjoyed it immensely, it was certainly an amazingexperience, and there were lots of interesting peopleto talk to. There was however a certain samenessabout some of the ‘bals’. Never have I danced LaChapelloise and Circassian Circle so many times.Walk into any of the ‘bals’ on any night and wait 10minutes and you could dance one or other dance.‘Circassian’ particularly popped up everywhere and itwas danced to many different pieces of music,including the theme from Star Wars!7Page

For those that knew them, late 2009 saw thesad death of two friends of the PerthInternational Folk Dance Group. Roger andFrances Young were regular dancers forseveral years in Perth in the early 1990’sbefore returning home to the USA. Francesparticularly contributed a lot to the group,including as one of our dance teachers.I was a little perplexed when making a dinnerinvitation to the Youngs as to what I wouldactually cook, given the dietary limitations forFrances, and to this day think that a breakfastof cooked frozen vegetables is a little kooky.However Frances was a great teacher in thekitchen as well as on the dance floor and Ilearned to combine yummy gluten-free anddairy-free concoctions without too muchtrouble. I learned about almond milk!Tribute to Frances and Roger Young – fromFiona Murdoch (NZ) 23 January 2010We became 'long-distance' friends when weboth moved home to countries far apart, me toNew Zealand, and Frances and Roger toOklahoma.Webeganaregularcorrespondence, exchange of music, phonecalls and general sharing of the ups anddowns in each other's lives. It seemed that weremained connected even though miles apart.We shared a love of music in many genres world music, dance music 'something a bitdifferent' music and frequently exchanged CDs(initially cassettes) of our latest local 'find'when we knew that the other would enjoylistening to it.I was privileged to call Frances and Roger myfriends. We met in Perth W. Australia asmembers of the Perth International Folk DanceGroup (PIFDG) where Frances was one of themain tutors. She became my folk danceteaching mentor as I began teaching folkdance myself - both in the group, and also aspart of exercise classes for groups of adults55 yrs with disabilities in Perth.I admired many things about Frances andRoger, not least their commitment and supportfor one another. It was great to see Francesand Roger dancing together at the PerthInternational Folk Dance Group events andobviously enjoying each other.I observed the selflessness in their marriageand the love they brought to the most domesticof tasks. Due to circumstance (Aussieimmigration law) Frances could not workformally – however she was extremelygenerous with her time in a voluntary capacityand often helped with my exercise groups forpeople with disabilities. She taught me muchabout dance teaching, loaning and giftingseveral useful dance teaching resources. I wasalways impressed with the research andpreparation she brought to her teachingsessions. Frances and Roger hired a smallchurch hall near their apartment for anafternoon a week – Frances to practice herdancing and Roger to play the piano. BothFrances and Roger gave the best they could –all the time.I remember that when teaching, Frances had atrick of wearing a scarf wrapped around oneankle, to help learners who were watchingcarefully discriminate between the two left feetthey thought they had! She and Roger had anenviable wardrobe of folk ‘costumes’ andinnovation for dance party nights was aspecialty.Grapevine – October 2010I was pleased I was able to visit them as partof a round-the-world-trip in 2002 and that theywere able to return the visit to NZ in 2003. Iwas interested to see where Frances andRoger lived, worked, and played. They wereexcellent hosts and I came away from the tripwith much more knowledge than I had had onmy arrival. I note this because on traveling inand out of the States, customs andimmigration officials were always mostsurprised to find the only state I had gone towas Oklahoma – I think they were somewhatembarrassed – however I can say that theenthusiasmthatFrancesandRogerdemonstrated for their homeland rubbed off onme. Likewise I introduced them both to theWOMAD festival in NZ and ‘fed’ their passionfor the cultural nuances of New Zealand whilethey were here. They did a tour of the NZ faultlines!Latterly the health problems that persisted forboth of them did creep into our phone callsand letters, with the evident frustration of notbeing able to pin the symptoms onto any onecause. As a physiotherapist specialising inneuromuscular disorders during my years inPerth, once Frances’s disorder was finallydiagnosed I well understood the path that herdisease would take her and was very sad thatsuch a vibrant woman who loved to dance wasPage8

going to suffer the indignity and challenges ofincreasingly restricted voluntary movement.I am pleased that she did not have to sufferthat for too long, especially without the supportof Roger who had been adamant he would beher main caregiver. I was grateful I was ableto share some of my therapy knowledge withthem and felt that our phone calls were thebetter for the shared understanding. I wasunable to communicate directly with Francesafter September of last year as her fine motorskills had deteriorated significantly and sheand Roger were exploring voice-activatedemailing technology. However I did have emailcontactthroughRoger.Agapincommunication then followed which proved tobe due to Roger’s unexpected death andfamily not knowing the extent of Frances andRoger’s network to ensure all were notified.As a memorial to Frances and Roger, in thefirst semester of my dance classes for 2010, Iwill teach dances I learned from Frances overthe years. As these dances go on to be sharedand danced in many places, and on manyhappy occasions, each step will be a reminderthat once Frances (and Roger) took pleasurein sharing their love of dance for others toenjoy.May they dance lightly together in the world wedo not yet know.I have enclosed some photos of happy timestogether over the years.Frances, Roger and I folk dancing in PerthWhile the relationship I shared with Francesand Roger was but one amongst many in eachof our lives, it had stood the test of time anddistance. To use New Zealand imagery, abasket woven from flax (called a kete) beginsfrom a spine plaited from 3 strong strands – Ithink of our friendship as being like a flax ketewith Frances, Roger and myself as 3 strandsfrom whence the relationship was built. Eachconnection between us, whether by phone,email, visit, photo or gift received by post,wove a stronger basket to hold manytreasures. Now even though two strands ofthe spine have passed over, the strength of thekete is sustained by those memories, and thetreasures of friendship still remain within.Grapevine – October 2010Frances and Roger geared up for hiking in theWichita Mountains when I visited in 2002Page9

Pictures of Penny Why - over the yearsGrapevine – October 2010In MemoriamPage10

Arap As you can see Yorgo had his hands full for the Perth workshops!! . d'Europe ('the big European dance'), a folk dance festival held in central France every July. The festival is held on a farm about 15km north of the town of Moulins, not far from the village of Gennetines. The