Projects

Song          Music          Dance          Theatre          Bringing it all together

Roger Watson and all artists working with him in education projects have enhanced CRB disclosure

Song – Singing and songwriting

Roger makes rare appearances at festivals and other venues as a singer

Catch him at Whitby Folk Week, 16^th – 22^nd August 2008.

Let Roger Watson help you create a community folk choir!

Roger organised his first Community Folk Choir in 1994 and in the next few years went on to create choirs in Broughton and Andover (Hants). These choirs have been independent, raising their own funding, employing their own workshop leaders, since 2000.

The choirs use traditional songs, most drawn from local traditions, and traditional harmony styles: West Gallery, Glee, etc; though without attempting to create a historical pastiche of any of these. Instead we concentrate on keeping the accessibility and adaptability of the original styles in a contemporary context. There is no need to be able to read notation. The techniques of ‘question & answer’ phrases and simple fugues and canons encourage responding to an aural, rather than written stimulus to create harmonic sounds.

Songs are not arranged in the ‘SATB’ style of classical choral music. Singers of either gender who find its range reachable in any appropriate octave sing the ‘Air’. The ‘Bass’ is fairly fixed, but is often sung by lower female voices as well as by male ones, again with the octave difference adding another pitch dimension. Middle parts, usually known as ‘Counter’ and ‘Tenor’, are suggested, but can also be improvised.

The starting point for a choir is often a particular event, usually seasonal, such as Christmas, harvest or a spring festival. A small repertoire of appropriate songs is learned. Members make a small contribution to a series of say 6 – 8 workshops, the remainder of the costs usually coming from local funding sources.

  Broughton Village Choir & Museum Loft Singers sing "The Barleycorn Carol" (lyrics from a Public domain project see below)

In the second stage, the storyteller will introduce the reminiscences to the primary school class group. The pupils will then build each into song form, guided by the songwriting workshop leader. The songwriting will be carried out on a whole group basis and the melodies will be derived from English folk songs. 

The final stage will comprise a recording and 2 short performances: one for the rest of the school and the other for the day centre users, who are visited by the pupils to be entertained by the songs, which their life stories have inspired.

The recordings and performance for Age-to-Age in Basingstoke took place on July 15th, and the children and older people made great friends. CDs for all involved are in production at the moment; the older people should get theirs very soon; the children will have to wait until the beginning of next term!

 ^{Here is a 'sneak preview' of one track!}

Pieces are created by fixing the harmonic/rhythmic structure with all players before melodic elements are added.

·         The emphasis is on learning by ear (but notation can be provided to support),

·         Listening to and interacting with other musical elements than your own,

·         Playing in a way which makes people want to DANCE!

 At the end of the day, a performance, which can be in the form of a ceilidh (one of the artists is a dance caller), can be put on. This can even extend to a full evening (e.g.: PTA event, Festival ceilidh) with the trio performing part of the time and the workshop participants joining them for the rest.

Roger works with one or two other musicians, usually a percussionist and a guitarist/keyboard player or bass player.

Winchester May Festival Youth Ceilidh Project, May 17^th, The Guildhall, Winchester  click here for report

Roger Watson offers training and development days with existing ensembles, such as musicians for morris or other ceremonial dance teams. With or without the dancers!

“Many thanks for lending us your communications skill and professional sense on Saturday.

By turning the workshop into a combined musicians/dancers development session you enabled us to reach and demonstrate targets which as a Side we'd rarely attain without a professional third party giving a hand.  There's a gulf of difference between a Side member saying, We should do it this way ?!

Versus an outside pro saying, This is how you do it !!   And then have the class demonstrate for themselves the amazing practical advantages of applied arrangement - from musicians playing staccato and silence to dancers setting tempo and rhythm, plus a maze of articulate ways and means.” – Dartington Morris 

Roger Watson’s creative and people-friendly approach to calling makes him much in demand for weddings, birthdays, staff functions and other community occasions. He matches repertoire to the experience of the dancers and when appropriate is able to improvise new sequences rather than sticking to the archived repertoire of ‘named’ dances. Matching the figures to the rhythm while teaching the sequences, makes certain everyone knows not just where to go, but how to get there!

Roger leads and calls with Boka Halat, calls and plays with Pigeon English and is also part of the regular calling team of MoonDance. He is also available to call with other bands by discussion.

In addition, anyone interested in booking Roger for a private event should contact him about other opportunities to attend private functions briefly, as this may be arranged with the organisers in certain circumstances.

In England, as in the rest of the British Isles, we have a tradition of ‘set’ dance: people dancing in spatial relationship with others, in groups of several couples. Like all traditions, it is evolving, and a great opportunity for group creativity. New dances, based on the old figures are being made up all the time. Roger Watson’s workshops with school groups from Primary (KS2) to GCSE and with community groups have created new dance sequences, many of which have entered his (and other callers’) repertoire.

A half-day workshop (with live music) introduces up to 32 participants to moving to rhythm, phrasing, dancing as couples and interacting with others in traditional formations. A ‘bank’ of figures is then taught and groups of participants are guided to create their own sequences, which are designed for participation (sharing with others) rather than performance (demonstrating your own ability)… Itself an important social and community skill!

Longer series can build up a repertoire, which can be shared in a final ceilidh performance, bringing together several groups/schools.

This project can also be combined with a project to create a music ensemble to play appropriate music. With dance for half a day and music for half a day, an Arts week project could create the music and repertoire for a ceilidh-style finale which would involve large numbers in the creativity and even more, including parents, teachers and friends in guided participation.

A version of this project using African rhythms is available through Boka Halat and an Indian element can also be introduced for more experienced dancers by adding Bhangra steps and rhythms.

By the end of the 19^th century, the dance in its many subtly varied forms was restricted to parts of Yorkshire, Papa Stour in the Shetlands and the Antwerp area of Flanders, some examples still existing in unbroken tradition up to today, with many more revived by folklore enthusiasts. This does not mean that in earlier times, it was not more widely spread across Britain and Europe.

Behind all these variations lies a common set of parameters which give the dance its relevance to society for the 21^st century and it is these on which this workshop concentrates, rather than on stylistic detail from any specific collected version.

The important factors are to get your own part right and at the same time, ensure that you are making it possible for others to get theirs right, too. This interdependence and sharing of responsibility is an excellent allegory for social and group dynamics and an examination of ‘what went wrong’ is often where real learning takes place.

Six or eight dancers make linear, circular and other figures with blunt ‘swords’. They weave, clash, turn and circle as a group, culminating in the making of a star-like ‘lock’ with the swords. The footwork is a simple walking step for the most part, using the rhythm of the music for synchronisation. Figures to be worked on are chosen for their suitability to the specific group.

Roger works with a village Longsword side in Broughton, Hants, now in its 17^th year. The group has made its own dance sequences.

Creative Longsword Dance

The 'East meets West' dance project for Test Valley BC in late June/early July 2008 was spoiled by the final performance in Andover town centre being rained off. However the student workshops were superbly creative. Click Here to watch extracts from the 'dress rehearsal' of this project for Andover College/Test Valley BC.  The final show was directed by Roger, who had also taught the longsword elements. Other tutors included: Sushmita Pati and Geeta Mehta (Kala the Arts), Cathy Seago, April Hughes and Paul Midgley.

Overton Junior School longsword workshops came to an end with the side's first dance out at Overton Sheep Fair in July 2008. Eighteen pupils danced on each of the two days! The side is now in the very capable hands of local dance teacher Pat Dale, and Roger will be following their progress, and hoping that the departing yr 6 pupils can encourage their Secondary School (Test Valley) to start something!

Roger is part of the Dance Team project, which offers Ceilidh and Longsword as corporate team-building activities.

‘Edwin’ is a dramatic piece by Clive Holland and Roger Watson, telling the story contained in the Hampshire ballad, ‘Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low’. The play uses dialogue and action and a range of traditional songs as well as the verses of the ballad. First performed in 2006 by Eastleigh Borough Youth Theatre, it is adaptable to performance by youth or adult groups, amateur or professional companies. The songs can be unaccompanied, or a complete music score can be provided. Mark Helyar, or your own director can direct the action and Roger Watson will be the Musical Director.

Roger Watson is available to consider any proposals to be composer/songwriter/Musical Director for plays. He has directed several amateur and school productions of ‘Larkrise to Candleford’, created music and dance for amateur Shakespeare productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, using renaissance material in modern arrangements.

Roger is a member of the cast in Mick Ryan’s latest play: ‘The Navvy’s Wife’ which will had its first production at Topsham Folk Club and Chippenham Folk Festival in May. Watch this space for a review soon.

Roger Watson can work with schools to deliver a variety of workshops in a creative approach to English tradition, with different groups at different times of the day working on music, singing/songwriting and dance/dancemaking to share in a final session at the end of a day.