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November 04, 2006
germs of diversity
The path by which germs of ideas turn into stories with enough shape to pitch and depth to write is difficult to chart. Occasionally the whole thing bursts into existence fully formed, but most of the time tiny pieces congeal over weeks, months or years until a critical mass is reached and the article is ready to describe.
Ceilidh
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006
Since it took a long while to work out how best to reflect the fantastic diversity of social dance and dancers in the UK, it came as no surprise to discover the subject had been scantily covered in the past.
The idea was to use people’s own words to describe why they liked social dance and demonstrate diversity by finding enthusiasts of different ages, perspectives and levels of experience. That's not as easy as it sounds. Without careful management the travel costs would have far exceeded the fee. So the challenge was to arrange the logistics in a commercially sensible manner.
Quadrille practice
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006
One hundred words is enough to give readers an impression of a person’s character as well as why they dance. Eighty words are not, so I had to reduce the number of dances covered by three. Katie liked the idea of one social dance for each of the twelve days of Christmas so much that the piece was promoted to the December issue.
Churchill’s old constituency did for ballroom and sequence, Islington for tango and a friend in Leeds introduced the Nottingham-based rapper and morris dancers. Downstairs at the Cecil Sharpe House they were dancing Jamaican quadrilles in one room and Balkan in another while a Ceilidh was in full swing in the main hall upstairs. Although the balboa dancer is Swedish I met her in London and Trim Jive Tim was already a friend. A 2005 interview of a lovely Japanese lady served for the flamenco and a friend introduced me to Awesome Ash who is sufficient material for a feature all on his own.
It was enormous fun and involved meeting some lovely people. While each interview started with the same set of questions we got along well and the germs of more ideas came as we chatted.
Ballroom
photo (c) Carole Edrich, 2006
The proofs are corrected and the magazine will be out soon. Next year, with Dance Today’s permission, I’ll get copies to everyone involved. My only regret was the 1,200 word limit meant it couldn't all be covered.
With time I hope that the shape of the next piece on the diversity of social dance will become clearer. Now it's time to prepare for the World Travel Market.
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