Sign up to do the Trad Academy’s two new courses in folk tunes and flat-foot/step dancing.  The courses start this Thursday in Chat’s Palace in Hackney and run every week from 7:00 – 8:30.  Come down and learn tunes and dances the old fashioned way with no written music in sight.  Send us your e-mail address to reserve your place or see below for more details.

1. British and American folk tunes

Over the nine weeks we’ll learn nine traditional dance tunes as well as working on phrasing, style, playing for dances and playing in sessions.  Each class will focus on a different type of dance tune and by the end of the course, we will have learnt a reel, a jig, a hornpipe, a polka, a square dance tune, a waltz, a schottische, a slip-jig and a 3/2 hornpipe.

With this course we hope to give people the skills to make music together. We’ll develop musicality, build repertoire and help you get ready for playing in pub sessions, for dances and most of all playing for the joy of playing.  The course is aimed at adults but is open to any players of any instruments.

Classes will run on Thursday evenings from 7pm-8.30 pm at Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby Walk, London E9 from the 4th October to the 29th November 2012.  See the courses page for more details.

2. Flat-foot and Step Dancing

A six week course in Appalachian flatfooting and other forms of traditional percussive dance.

Flatfooting is a style of improvised percussive dance from the Appalachian mountains in the South-Eastern United States. It is related to many other dance styles such as stepping, clog dancing and modern tap dance.  Over the six weeks, dancers will be taught a number of different steps and will learn how to form their own improvised routines to traditional tunes.

Classes will run on Thursday evenings from 7pm-8.30 pm at Chats Palace, 42-44 Brooksby Walk, London E9 from the 4th October to the 8th November 2012.