list of workshops
It occurred to me that I should write this down while I still remember it, because it fades pretty fast. This is the list of workshops I did at Lark a few weeks ago. I really only got serious about it the second half of camp, after grandpa took the kids back home. And we never really left Camp 1, so it's limited to northern and eastern European, which is kind of boring.
9:00 Played hammered dulcimer in Rebecca King's English Country band session. She made an effort to teach a little bit of dynamics and some group stuff, but it was hard to accomplish much with that big of a group (admidst the background noise of people finishing their breakfast no less) but I think the group was more interested in just having an opportunity to saw away at English tunes in a group.
10:00 Danny Carnahan's octave mandolin workshop. It was crashed by a bunch of regular mandolin players, who ended up drowning out the quieter octave mandolins. I was definitely a back-bencher in this one, though it was serendipitous that he started with one of the two tunes I know, The Rambler, that I've been working on since January.
11:00 Earlier in the week, having absolutely no intention of going to this, I happened to walk within earshot of the lower dance pavilion and heard Jason Adajian going off on one of his brilliant digressions about the nature of dance, and work, and the separation of work from play in the modern industrial age, and just had to join his Morris dance workshop. And loved it. Next time I've got to finally admit that I just really enjoy English ritual dance--I've done it the last three Larks and loved it each time.
12:00 Showed up for the last half of Robin Petries hammered dulcimer workshop. A very relaxing scene, just two students and her. I collected some cool Eastern European tunes, which I'm still excavating from the tape recorder. Next year she may do half workshop and half tune session.
1:00 Dragged myself to Sue's Balkan dance workshop. With the cold I'd caught earlier in the week, I was too tired at this point to enjoy this much, so I actually sat out a lot.
Here was my two-hour break for desparate woodshedding and napping.
4:00 Janice's Irish Sets. Got to dance with my wife. Yay.
5:00 Like last time, got sucked in to Toby's Swedish dance workshop, just cause it was on the same spot. Learned the Gangar, cool Swedish couple trance dance, Anne and I worked on our Hambo (in which I realized the importance of a good svict), and the Bingshe Polska, which I think I've already completely forgotten.
The high point of the camp was definitely the Irish Sets party in the dining hall on Thursday at 11:00. By the end of the night I'd been within two feet of Anne for like eight hours, no kid in sight, that was way cool.
