"BARDS, BALLADS AND BEYOND" Introduction 2006

OBJECTIVES:

The objectives of Tenterden Folk Day Trust are to preserve and advance public education and appreciation of traditional and contemporary folk song, music, dance and other related traditions, crafts and folk arts as part of the living heritage.

Our educational projects started in 1994 and have proved a huge success every year since. They are a brilliant way of introducing every aspect of English traditional culture including folk music, song, dance and storytelling to pupils and students of all ages and building on that introduction by return visits. The workshops can also be widened to incorporate aspects of other European and wider cultures if required.

Booking form available here

Booking form as PDF

THE PROJECT:

The educational project is supported by Tenterden Folk Festival and Ashford Borough Council and is therefore open to all schools, colleges and youth groups within the Borough at a subsidised rate. The workshops are also available to schools outside the Borough at the normal rates.

· We arrange for professional folk musicians to visit a venue to run a workshop for a day, half day or an evening. Alternatively we can deal with several groups over the course of a day but this does not allow the depth and variety that a longer workshop can offer. Each workshop, with two visiting workshop leaders, can cater for up to 40 participants.

· We can also offer workshops with one leader where the group is smaller or time period shorter.

· We can arrange for folk musicians in residence for several days over a longer period.

A TYPICAL VISIT:

There is no such thing as 'a typical visit' because each one is different! It can be left to the folk musicians to present a 'taster' - a bit of everything, and then see which aspect appeals to the particular group; or a basic plan can be arranged between the school and the artistes beforehand. The school can decide what they want to concentrate on, such as learning some traditional songs and tunes, songwriting, dance, storytelling or a little bit of each.

A visit could include many of the following elements:

Performance; In order to introduce the type of music the students will be working on and to satisfy the "listening" aspect of the project the visit is likely to start with a short talk and performance by the visiting musicians. A wide variety of folk songs and music will be performed and a traditional story may be included. Part of the performance may include songs with a Kentish connection. Towards the end of the performance the audience will be encouraged to participate by joining in choruses. The performance element would last between 30 minutes and 1 hour depending on the response of the students and the length of the workshop.

Questions and Answers Session; The performance can often lead into a question and answer session. This is an opportunity for the students to glean more information about the music, the artists, the folk process, working as a professional musician on the folk scene, or any other relevant matters that may be raised and to strike up a rapport with the artistes.

Learn a Song; Students will have the opportunity to sing through a few songs (with the words) and decide to polish one up and may wish to perform it to other school groups at a later date.

Learn a Dance; Children very often find the idea of folk dancing embarrassing but our musicians have a lot of experience at getting over this and getting everyone involved. They have a range of dances for all ages, some are very simple, some quite complex. Once they have started most pupils enjoy it and at this stage that is the objective rather than the technical correctness of the steps although some groups do go on to polish up a dance or two for presentation. If you wish to concentrate on dance you will require a workshop with two leaders.

Sword Dance; Another aspect of dance, as opposed to the usual social dance, is ritual dance, in this case the sword dance. This is not Scottish sword dancing but the English longsword using flexible "swords" with a handle on each end. This involves groups of six or eight pupils (and staff!). It is quite 'macho' and always popular and has been proved to appeal to the girls as well as the boys.

Learning the Tune to Accompany the Song or Dance; Where the students are already able to play instruments, and the whole day is available, it is possible to split the participants into groups and this can enable one group to concentrate on learning a tune to play for a song or dance. Where the students have instruments they should be encouraged to bring them along whether they are guitars, violins, saxophone, keyboards, or what ever.

Storytelling; Another, possibly lesser-known, aspect of 'folk'. All children, in fact all adults too, enjoy listening to stories. This input could be just a listening session or a workshop could encourage the pupils to research and tell stories themselves - fairy tales, local legends, jokes, the scope is endless.

Presentation; On some occasions a school has requested several full day workshops during a term and this has enabled the students to work towards their own concert or show in front of the rest of the school and/or parents. This is particularly pleasing as we then have a group of students within the school to hand down the tradition to their fellow pupils which is the best way of achieving the objectives set out above. But, it is a nice idea to do a performance and share what they have been doing, however 'unfinished' even on shorter visits.

Conclusion;

What actually happens on the day is largely governed by the students' reaction to the stimuli offered by the performers. Where time is limited it is easier and much more effective to go with the tide rather than fight against it, so the day will vary if the students show a particular interest or aptitude for one or more topics. If however you believe that a particular aspect is most relevant to your curriculum or students let us know in advance so that we can pass this on to the performers so that the can plan the programme accordingly.

THE PERFORMERS:

The performers we use have a long track record of working in schools with pupils of all ages and in different parts of the country. Our musicians for this year include Pete Castle and Keith Kendrick who have taken part in many similar projects, either together or individually in Derbyshire, Shropshire, Sussex and Kent.

Pete Castle, a former teacher, is a professional singer of traditional songs, storyteller, guitarist, and community arts worker. Since 1978 he has worked as a folk singer at clubs and festivals all over Britain. Pete also works as a storyteller and is doing an increasing amount of work in schools and on community projects. As well as working solo he has worked with a number of groups most famously "Popeluc" who perform a mixture of traditional British and Romanian folk music and are very popular in both countries.

Keith Kendrick has been performing as on concertina, guitar and voice since the late 1960’s when he was a member of the very well know group “The Druids”. He has subsequently been part of various well known and popular line-ups including “Ram's Bottom”, “Muckram Wakes”, “The East Kent Hoppers”, and “The Anchor Men”. He currently works solo, with the trio “Three Sheets to the Wind” and as half of several duos. From November 2005 Keith has also been performing in and directing the music for a stage production of ‘Jason and the Argonauts’. This ran most nights up to Christmas Eve in Warwick Theatre and will tour the nation for six weeks.

We are please that this year we are also able to offer some workshops with Lucy Castle. Lucy is a classically trained violinist but is best know as one of the leading authorities on Romanian folk fiddle. She has worked both in Romania and England with top folk musician and folklorist Ioan Pop and his group “Iza” and the Anglo Romanian group “Popeluc” with both Ioan and Pete, as well as on radio, TV and CD. Lucy can offer workshops involving folk song, music and dance from Romania or can join Pete for Anglo Romanian workshops.

Other performers and workshop leaders are also available from time to time. Please enquire if you have any particular requirements to fit in with a theme or a project you are undertaking.