To bourée or not to bourée

Sue Carter,  a recent arrival, writes "Autre fois" (or before we moved here) our social life centred on our folk music and dance friends.  Trevor is a musician and played with a celidh band as well writing and singing his own songs. We  helped to run a folk club and I was a member of a clog dancing side. We always knew that it would  be this side of life in England we would miss most and were very keen to get involved in what appeared  to be the thriving traditional music scene in Quercy. Cake and apple juice Soon we spotted a banner advertising a "Cours des dances traditionelles". The course had started  but we were not too late to join and it was that very evening. So after just a few days we were welcomed  into the class alongside about 50 French and three other English people. Throughout the winter Tuesday evenings have been a highlight of the week. We danced for two hours  stopping at 11pm for cake and apple juice! I can't help contrasting this with our weekly clog practice  in England - barely an hour dancing then off to the pub. (Mind you we do miss the chance to sit with  friends for an hour in the pub). Many of the dances we have been learning use figures that are very familiar from English dances and  are easy to pick up besides which, as in an English celidh, no one cares much if you get it wrong  although they do take it very seriously. Easy that is until we tried the Mazurka - it looks easy and indeed I could do it when dancing with the teacher but let loose it was hopeless! We did feel  encouraged when one of the old club members said it took him two years to learn it! With a bit of  perseverance we finally cracked it. The breakthrough for Trevor was getting a written breakdown  of the steps from the internet - he always needs to analyse what he needs to do before his feet will cooperate. The French love to dance Getting involved with traditional music and dancing has been a vital part of our building our new  lifestyle here. Not only were we able to learn some French traditional dances and meet many  French people, we had lots of "bals" to go to over the winter months. The French love to dance and unlike in England the dance floor is always quickly filled. Music and dance is a great way to eliminate the language barrier and the French people in the class have been very welcoming and  friendly and seemed especially pleased when we joined in extra events and turned up at the "bals". Recently the tutor at the Caylus classes has introduced us to another class she runs in her own village. This is, as she says, " des kilometres" away, but is brilliant as there are musicians there who welcome  Trevor and he has been able to join in when they are playing as well as dancing. He has met up with a  fiddle player in Albi who also has time to play (ie is retired from the wage game) and on has been back  on stage playing bourées while I looked for another partner to dance with! Everyone seemed to have fun After my retirement I had fancied the idea of calling at celidhs (maybe a way of not getting left behind  every weekend when the band was playing?) . Little did I know that my first try would be calling a  "strip the willow" dance in French. Three out of four sets managed which did not seem too bad (I have  seen some disasters at English celidhs!) and everyone seemed to have fun.  So as Spring arrives in all its glory - are we glad we moved here? Silly question - vive la bourée!

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