NEWS ARCHIVE

Summertime Dancing , including the Summertime Old Time and Golden Oldies Clubs

Summertime Dancers will no doubt remember the series of articles “Moving forward” I penned for the OTDS magazine last year. I put forward several ideas that might entice new members to the Society but sadly, to the best of my knowledge, the committee didn’t discuss any of them. Undaunted here are some New Year resolutions although ‘2010 will be the same again’ but you never know!

Resolution 1 – A small sub-committee under the leadership of Chris Everitt, the events Secretary, should be set up to deal with all matters relating to Society dancing holidays. This will give the main committee the proper time to devote solely to ‘preserving and promoting old time dancing’ which is why the Society was originated, instead of spending vast amounts of committee time running a holiday business.

Resolution 2 – Following the re-examination of the Societies finances during my term as Chairman there is now a substantial sum on deposit which I understand is being kept for ‘a rainy day’. I think the committee needs to look outside at the weather because it’s raining NOW. Instead of cutting down on 2 magazine issues to save putting up the membership fees I suggest they dip into the war chest an move £1000 across to the current account and abandon both unfortunate ideas.

Resolution 3 - Whilst we have a well produced newsletter this mainly goes to people who are already members not to the people we need to reach. The answer is much more advertising and promotion but I am told the budget has only been increased to a miserable £300. Summertime spends more than that so I suggest trebling this amount and then the Press Officer Mike Cooper might be able to make an impact.

Resolution 4 – The South of the country is being left out of the loop when it comes to Society dancing holiday venues, we haven’t had one in the south or southeast for years. Many members live in this large area, the birthplace of the Society, and if the OTDS wants to keep them as members it needs to be less orientated to other areas.

So Summertime Dancers, if you agree with any of these resolutions or have any of your own and you belong to the OTDS, you might make a difference if you put your views to the committee by contacting the OTDS Secretary via their website or of course pen some replies in the Society magazine which always livens things up?

Best wishes to you all.

Richard Purcell

Almost 50 people braved freezing rain and blizzards to attend Summertime's Christmas Party this afternoon. They were treated to an afternoon of music and jolly japes. Many of the attendees wore festive yet tasteful clothing.

The MCs for the afternoon were of course Richard and Joyce although (with much trepidation) the microphone was briefly handed to Gerald (photo left) to conduct his annual singalong to the "Twelve Days of Christmas" (words in the graphic in the message above). This was accompanied by the various groups demonstrating their (lack of) acting skills - see Photo Album Page 16. Other party games included a sequence version of pass the parcel with everyone having a parcel, and an elimination dance. I found it difficult to carry a parcel and perform the Mayfair Quickstep. Next year I will wear a rucksack.

As it was an afternoon event we couldn't call it an American Supper but a "Bring and Share" Party with everyone bringing food for the grand feast. Richard and Joyce presented gifts to several of the Club's backroom helpers for their efforts during the year.

Scrooge Richard was unusually overcome with the Christmas spirit and waved admission charges for the afternoon. A raffle and the Friendly Waltz completed the festivities. It was a very enjoyable afternoon marred slightly by the fact it took me two hours to drive the final three miles home due to the roads being gridlocked following a snow storm.

Happy Christmas

Nigel Carter (22/12/09)

For those of you who have visited one of Summertime’s Garden Parties at my house you might like to see a narrow escape. The big tree at the bottom of the garden came down overnight and managed to miss everything in its path. That’s what I call good alignment and direction and obviously someone likes me! Click on photo for larger view.

Joyce, Joan, Gerald and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with Julia Cosh (FISTD - photo left) at her OT tea dance in Chieveley Village Hall on 22nd November. The weather on the day was absolutely awful but we braved the floods like OT heroes with Gerald in the back (safest place).

For once I have some very good news to report particularly for dancers in the South West.

We always seem to be hearing of clubs closing through lack of support so it is a pleasure to announce a new group being organised by Paul Harding, membership secretary of the OTDS. I am also told that Sue Kellie will be involved helping with the music.

The group will meet on the first Friday each month (subject to bank holidays) and I have detailed the dates below and these will appear on our new ‘Wot’s On’ page in due course.

2009: Dec 4,

2010: Jan 8, Feb 5, March 5, April 9, May 7, Jun 4, July 2, Aug 6, Sep 3, Oct 1, Nov 5, Dec 3

If you would like to help this new venture please support them on their first dance 4th December and you can download a poster with the address etc here to display at your club.

Best wishes to Bath Old Time Dancers.

Richard Purcell

Summertime Dancing (Supporting Old Time dancing in the South)

We were favoured with beautiful weather on both journeys to and from the Midlands with no hold ups for a change. The Park Inn Hotel was so near the M5 that it could have been on it. Having said that it was a good hotel with comfortable rooms and the food was excellent. Breakfasts were the usual self service and dinner (at 5.00!) was carvery style with a very good choice although the vegetables were a bit too undercooked for some, not me.

I didn’t go to the AGM which allegedly wasn’t very exciting with about 50 members attending. The retiring members of the committee were all re-elected with the addition of Wendy Griffiths (Savoy Records). Wendy was very pleasant to me despite our different views but I honestly can’t see any progressive influence at committee so I guess that will just ‘jog along’ which seems to suit the membership.

Now to the interesting bit the dancing; The West Bromwich Town Hall was a splendid venue (see photo left) although finishing at 10.30 was far too early but not the fault of the Society. If these halls can’t get staff to work later they should get rid of them and employ someone who will.

I thought the attendance of 60+ was rather disappointing but as one OTDS official said to me “who wants a holiday in W B”, I have to agree that it wouldn’t be on my list of must visit places?

Throughout the weekend David Ingley played some excellent music which was well appreciated by us all.

Friday was MC’d by newcomers to the Society John Rainey and Heather Roberts (see photo Album Page 13) and what an excellent job they made of it. They danced in the competition style with lots of the championship dances which were a joy to watch and they took the trouble to go around a chat to everyone during the evening. Very well done both of them.

Saturday was Joyce’s farewell as Society Chairman and committee member. I managed to c**k things up as usual by forgetting the back strap of my tails waistcoat and leading the first dance with it flapping in the breeze. Fortunately Mr Ingley Senior tied it up with a bit of string for the rest of the evening! Everything seemed to go off with a swing as usual except for Grahame Baldwin’s singing which made me sound like Frank Sinatra.

Sunday was led by new Society leaders Eve and Keith Stubbs (see photo Album Page 13) who again made a great success of their debut with a popular programme which got everyone singing and dancing. Thanks to them both for a lovely evening and for helping to put all those newsletters into the envelopes for us.

See you all at Torquay next year.

Best wishes Richard.

One half of Summertime's Teaching Assistants, Gerald Bibby, celebrates his 79th birthday (second time around?) on Friday 23rd October.

Gerald is one of the Club's characters; a 79 year old "Dennis the Menace" but we wouldn't be without him as no session is dull with Gerald in the room. His jokes are legendary and as old as he is.

According to his long-suffering wife, Joan (photo right), his jokes and humour have not improved since the day she met him.

Gerald and Joan are the couple to follow when you're starting off in Old Time or Sequence Dancing because of their clear footwork. They run Summertime when Richard and Joyce are indisposed.

We all wish Gerald a very happy Birthday with many more to come.

Day 1: On a warm and sunny weekend Summertime Dancing held an Old Time Dance weekend holiday at the Carrington House Hotel Bournemouth. Formal dances were held Friday and Saturday night and practice sessions were held Saturday and Sunday morning. The organist for Saturday night was Antonair.

The party was sharing the hotel with a coach party of German tourists and I had visions of a battle for restaurant seats between German beach towels and dancers cushions but this did not materialise as Joyce had reserved seating for us.

On the first evening there was a sherry reception so everyone could renew acquaintances. Gordon and Jill Pascoe (photo right), new members of the Old Time Dance Society had travelled from Vancouver Island, Canada for a tour of their old haunts and to attend the holiday. Its amazing how far people will travel to hear Richard's singing!

On the first evening during the first dance two hotel "heavies" entered the ballroom and seized Richards radio mike whilst he was in mid dance. He chased after them and after a brief altercation had his mike returned. It appeared that Richard's announcements and singing were breaking through on a disco for recovering alcoholics in the room below. This would be enough to drive them back to drink. Eventually the hotel provided Richard with a new mike and all was well until the interval when the DJ downstairs changed his mike for a louder one on a different frequency and our tranquility was shattered by loud incomprehensible music played over the hotel speaker system in our ballroom from the disco below. Richard decided to fight back and played the latest David Last CD over his old radio mike in an attempt to show them what decent music was like. Eventually the hotel management managed to get their act together and switch off the hotel system. The rest of the evening passed off without further incident apart from Gerald who succeeded in getting Joan and himself locked out of their room which ended up with the porter having to break down their door.

Richard was supported in leading off by Gerald and Joan, Ray and Jean and Mike and Anne.

Day 2: After a healthy breakfast of egg and bacon, those of the group who didn't play truant and go paddling in the sea attended the morning session of dancing and tuition. Richard and Joyce taught the Regency Mazurka (photo left) which was invented this year and recapped the Ventian Foxtrot, a very much older dance invented in 1966. It was very pleasing to see everyone leaping in unison during the Mazurka although Richard banned me from leaping higher than 2 feet - spoil sport.

It was a very warm and sunny afternoon with hardly a cloud in the sky and as a special treat we were all allowed out in the afternoon to explore the delights of Boscombe and Bournemouth whilst Richard retired to the bar to recover.

The evening dancing was to Antonair (photo right) who played a good selection of sing along tunes especially for Richard (unfortunately). He also played the Lancers with some smashing tunes; however the dancing caused much hilarity. My big toes are still blistered.

The hat competition was held after the interval with the theme being films. The entrants, with one exception, had put a lot of effort into their entries as can be seen on Album Page 1. Shirley paraded without a hat claiming it had "Gone with the Wind". First prize was awarded to Frank for his hat entitled "Crocodile Dundee" (photo left - the hat was topped by a crocodile and had Dundee Cake fastened to the rim), second prize to Hilary for the "Sound of Music" and Third Prize to Heather for "High Society".

This time Richard's singing broke through on Sainsbury's Dinner Dance audio sysytem in the ballroom below and the hotel had to provide him with yet another different mike. Its amazing the length's Richard goes to in order to get his singing to a wider audience.

The proceeds from the Charity Raffle of £80 will be donated to H4H (Help for Heroes) charity; the charity now supported by Summertime Dancing.

Richard was supported in leading the dances by Ray and Jean, Gerald and Joan and John and Joyce.

Day 3: The hotel lift was out of action so attendees had extra exercise in carrying their luggage down the stairs - oh what fun! The morning session consisted of dances requested by the attendees. Gordon Pascoe, from Canada, had requested the Destiny Waltz as he had only danced it in his head (what a strange head) for the last 50 years. He bravely led it off with Summertime's Rhona and made a good job of it. The results of the holiday quizzes were announced with Mike (Sweasey) winning one, after a tense tie break with Larry, and Gordon (Adams) the other. After Sunday lunch we left for home tired and blistered after an excellent weekend of Traditional and Classical Old Time dancing.

Photos can be found on Album Page 1

Nigel Carter 13th Sept

Today, Summertime celebrated Joyce Hutchin's actual 70th Birthday which coincided with the Summertime's Golden Oldies Club practice evening. Joyce's official birthday is to be held in conjunction with Summertime Old Time's Ball on the 19th September. Like the Queen she has two birthdays. As a result the evening was conducted in a party atmosphere with easy dances being chosen. This was just as well as Richard had pushed the boat out and provided free wine!

The birthday cake (photo left) was made by Hilary Carter. This had been made with liberal quantities of brandy so I hope no-one was breathalysed on the way home :-)

Hilary also presented Joyce with a large bouquet of flowers from the Club and she received a number of cards from the members, many hand made.

It is interesting to note that the day after Joyce was born, Britain declared war on Germany. I am sure this was just a coincidence.

It was a double celebration for the Club with members Eileen and Walter Jepson (photo right) celebrating their Diamond Wedding Anniversary on the 3rd September. We all wish them the very best for the future.

Photographs of the evening can be found on Album Page 11.

Nigel Carter   2nd September 2009

On Sunday August 2nd. Richard Purcell threw open his grounds to supporters and guests of Summertime Dancing for his Annual Garden Party, rivalled only by that held by the "Palace". Richard has spent the last few weeks repairing cat damage (from his own cats), hoovering the garden and painting his lawn (apparently he was trained at Kew in this art in 1962/3) to ensure an immaculate presentation on the day although tropical rainstorms tried unsuccessfully to ruin his garden before the event. He had also hosted the local U3A garden group in the previous week.

He has succeeded in his endeavours as demonstrated by the photos on Album page 9. Even the sun he ordered made an appearance, but then the sun always shines on the righteous. The garden was a mass of flowers and shrubs and looked a picture.

The guests were well fed and watered as plentiful tea and food was on hand, ably dispensed by Gordon and Joyce. I was nearly trampled in the rush for Joyce's famous cheese scones.

Richard has replanted the garden from scratch having inherited the family property in 1973. Every year the lawn has got smaller as Richard has tried to fit more plants in. The arch (photo right) was copied from a show garden at Chelsea some years ago, planted with Clematis, Campis Radicans and Honeysuckle "Dropmore Scarlet".

There were many plants with strange unpronouncable names. I was never any good at latin at school. Therefore it's my fault if the names of the flowers are wrong on Album page 9 .

Some of the plants were somewhat unusual such as the Castor Oil plant (left) from Tenerife - useful for constipation issues perhaps.

I think there must have been 40-50 people present but it was difficult to count them in the dense undergrowth. Richard had provided a printed guide (but unfortunately no compass) to help people find their way and not get lost.

Richard's Garden Party project successfully raised £125 for Richard's nominated charity - raising money for a new Normandy Village Community bus, which he will need to use in a couple of years time when he is in his dotage.

One of the guests (Lloyd) gave the party some excitement by having to call out the AA as he was only firing on one cylinder (his car that is) when he and his wife arrived. I believe the AA man was given guidance on how to repair the car by a few of the guests for which I am sure he was very grateful.

It will now take Richard the rest of the year to recover his lawn following the trampling it received at today's event. However, it was an extremely enjoyable afternoon.

Nigel Carter - 2nd August 2009

 

 

 

The "Big Guns" of the Old Time Dance Society enjoying some fun at the Fairlands Sequence Dance Club, 23rd July 2009.

Postscript

Joyce and Fred Boast also attended the Summertime Old Time Dance Club on the following Monday. A photo of them joining in the dancing is on Album Page 2.

Richard and Joyce have finally returned after their Baltic Cruise holiday, having been away from their Clubs for over two weeks. However in the meantime the Golden Oldies and Old Time Clubs have been exceptionally well run by Gerald and Joan Bibby; Richard and Joyce's assistants.

Gerald instilled his own sense of humour during the sessions recounting tales from his lengthy and colourful life history including "Confessions of a Window Cleaner" (photo right) with his wife desperately trying to keep him under control with limited success. Once he had control of the microphone he was in his element.

Amongst the novel practices he incorporated were progressives with a different dance for each 16 bar sequence and a random change of partner, and a "ladies only dance". At the latter, some of the men rebelled against such blatent sexual discrimination and performed a "men only" dance.

As can be seen the sessions were a lively fun packed occasion with good attendance and we are very grateful to Gerald and Joan for keeping the Clubs running in such an enjoyable fashion.

On a more serious note, all the Club member's send their very best wishes to Tony and Hilary Thompson for Tony's major operation this week and look forward to seeing them back dancing at full strength in the near future.

 

Nigel Carter 3/7/09

Around 60 people attended the Summertime Golden Oldies Club on Wednesday at Normandy Village Hall. They were composed of a mixture of Old Time and Modern Sequence Dancers. The Golden Oldies Club dance programme is comprised of popular "Modern" Sequence over 4 years old, Classical Old Time and Traditional Old Time dances and it gives dancers from the both worlds an opportunity to try each others dances and has helped to increase the number attending Summertime's Old Time Club which meets Monday afternoons.

Amongst the dances included in Wednesday programme were the Ragtime Swing (1969), The Veleta (1900), Tango Las Vegas (1978), Rumba Loui-Ann (2000), Beyzabanu Cha Cha (1997), Jayde Foxtrot (1987), Woodside Waltz (1965), Blue Bird Waltz (1982) and Tango Giovanni (2008). Richard and Joyce revised the Eivona Quickstep (1974). This quickstep used to be very popular and it certainly flows much better than some of the new dances which have come out recently with none of the gimmicks currently in vogue. To people like my wife and I, who are relatively new to Modern Sequence Dances, many of these older Modern Sequence Dances are new dances as are the Old Time Dances. During the previous 2 weeks Richard and Joyce had taught the Woodside Waltz with special emphasis on alignment and dancing the individual figures correctly.

Richard and Joyce were supported in leading off by Joan and Gerald, Joyce and John and Hilary and Tony.

The Club meets every Wednesday night from 20:00 throughout the Summer until mid-September. All are welcome especially beginners.

Nigel Carter 12th June 2009

Another excellent crowd turned up to the Monday afternoon Summertime Old Time Club Practice Session today. The Session was conducted in a light hearted atmosphere at Normandy Village Hall. Around 60 people attended including new couples who had wandered across from the Modern Sequence Dance World to see what Old Time was all about. Hopefully they will continue to attend. It has been great to see the Club numbers steadily increasing at a time when Old Time and Sequence Dance Club numbers are often falling.

The afternoon consisted of a varied programme of Classical and Traditional Old Time containing dances through the ages such as the Empress Mazurka (1954), Desmond Blues (1954), Alison Waltz (1967), Firefly Tango (1976), Bedworth Blues (2008) and Valentine's Gavotte (2009). For light relief the Four Hand Star was danced as a progressive.

Richard and Joyce provided revision on the Regency Saunter (1969) written by Miss Rita Pover, Richard's former teacher. Another dance written by Miss Pover, the Regis Waltz (1964) was also included in the afternoon's programme.

The aftenoon was very enjoyable enhanced by the fact Richard did not attempt to sing!

The Summertime Old Time Club meets every Monday from 13:45 to 16:15 at Normandy Village Hall and beginners are welcome.

Nigel Carter 8th June 2009

I thought that visitors to our website might like an insight into the past glories of dancing when it was in its heyday. This picture of a competition at Wembley's Empire Pool shows just how popular our pastime was in 1970 when this picture was taken. Thanks to Tony & Hilary Thompson from Summertime Dancing for the photo and they are somewhere amongst all those people!

(Click on photo for a larger image.)

Richard Purcell 5th June 2009

 

 

Acknowledgement is given to the unknown photographer of this photo.

A party of the more intrepid members of Summertime Dancing ventured north of Watford with passports at the ready to attend the Old Time Dance Society's Silver Anniversary weekend at the Floral Hall Southport.

The proceedings started with the introduction by President Fred Boast of Joyce and Richard who were the MC’s Friday evening. Richard in tails and Joyce in a beautiful blue gown trimmed with ostrich feathers looked the epitome of OT dancing. Richard began by joking that they were the warm up act for the main event and they certainly got the weekend off to a great start. They provided an excellent demonstration of a lovely programme and everybody was singing (unfortunately including Richard) by the end of the evening. As always David Last was superb amongst the best I have ever heard him play.

The 25th Anniversary Ball on Saturday was flawlessly demonstrated by Mike and Pat Cooper from Cannock (photo below right) with the famous Empress Orchestra (photo below left) playing for the main part of the evening. The orchestra played beautifully melodious music throughout the evening although one or two of the tempos were challenging? The guests were however somewhat surprised when at 23.15 they stopped playing and the curtains shut with half an hour still to go. I gather this was an organisational misunderstanding but fortunately David Last stepped into the breach and played rousing music for the finish of the evening. For this he quite rightly received a standing ovation. It was, however, a great experience for us to dance OT to an orchestra and it made the evening that bit more "special" and in keeping with the occasion.

The evening was graced by the presence of many VIP guests including the Society's Patron Angela Rippon, the Mayor and Mayoress of Sefton and the doyenne of OT dancing Miss Rita Pover (photo below centre) inventor of such OT favourites as the Tango Serida and the Regis Waltz. She was also Richard’s teacher (dance not singing). There were also representatives of several Dance Societies present.

I was very jealous of the fact that both Fred Boast and Richard had the chance to dance with the Society's Patron Angela Rippon. Fred accompanied her in the Lancers - Grand March; photos of which can be found here.

The location was excellent with the Floral Hall (photo right) and the main hotel (the Ramada Plaza) being in a newly developed region of Southport beside the Marine Lake and with views of the sea at high tide. At low tide very powerful binoculars were required to see the sea as the tide goes out a very long way. Summertime members explored Southport and the surrounding area and the associated non-dance photos can be found on here. Southport was graced with many speciality shops where the women and myself could (and did) spend lots of money.

Thanks must go to the Events Secretary, the Officers and Committee of the Old Time Dance Society for their hard work in organising a splendid weekend.

On a final note it must be reported that I actually heard Richard sing one note in tune when he decided to accompany David Last during the pre-Ball Dance. This was a vast improvement.

We are delighted to have been contacted by friends in the OT dancing world from Vancouver in Canada who have been viewing this website with interest. Gordon Pascoe has been kind enough to send me some copies of their programmes and you will see that many of the dances are well known to us although one or two are new to me.