User Profile

I am a professional musician, singer, dance caller and community artist, involved in Traditional folk dance, song and culture. I have lived in Lincolnshire, England all of my life and I am particularly interested in the traditons and music of my home county.

In Spring 2008, I was awarded the St.Hugh's Foundation Fellowship award, which has provided me with funding to undertake a series of research visits to North America and Europe, to look at community based social folk dance events. Here is a brief outline of my project:

Traditional Social Dance and Communities

As a musician, dance caller, community artist and event organiser, I am interested in how regular dance events can be maintained within communities and the benefits this can have for the people involved. My project will visit dances in England, North America and Eastern Europe to look at how dances are organised and maintained within communities with a particular emphasis on rural areas. I will gather information from dancers, musicians and organisers with the eventual aim of establishing a number of models to help people maintain regular folk dance events and also to examine cultural and social differences across the countries I visit.
Information from my research will be available on-line, allowing the
people I have visited to compare their experiences with the
experiences of people in other locations.

I live and work in Lincolnshire, England. This is a large but geographically isolated county, which has a strong link to folk traditions. It also has close links with North America through outward migration and with Eastern Europe through inward migration.
The use of traditional music and dance within rural communities is of
particular interest to me.

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