WCCP Ruishton Play Day
6th July 2025
If you weren’t with us this month you missed a lot of fun!
The theme for July’s Play Day at Ruishton was ‘dance’ and we started off with a cracking talk by Alan Dyer on how to play for ceilidhs. Many professional players give such a talk but there was none better than Alan, whose knowledge of dances and musical genres was off the scale. When is a jig not a jig? Well, you had to be there to find out! We played through examples as he explained how to approach them and we reprised many at the end of the day.
Over lunch we had a fun table-top quiz for people to do co-operatively, all about different systems of concertinas. There were no prizes but then the questions were quite hard!
Delegates split into three elective groups to learn tunes together and the ‘Showcase’ that afternoon featured mini bands playing tunes such as Down the Sides and Up the Middle, Danserye/Bransle de Bourgogne plus Shrewsbury Waltz as arranged by the late Jenny Cox, a founder of WCCP and a set of variations on the American folk tune Simple Gifts.
Individual performers gave us the singalong spiritual Roll, Jordan Roll, Mel’s Hornpipe by Lewis Wood, a French folk tune as a duet and Horses Bransle with La Moresca and Bouree de Concours.
The next Play Day is on Sunday 7th September and it will include a fascinating insight into Polish folk tunes with a chance to learn them under the expert guidance of Rupert and Olga Kirby. I’ve seen these tunes and they are just great – just different enough from the British repertoire to get the grey matter working but identifiably folky and danceable. Do come if you can!