#treepling

Thanks to all that came to the showing last weekend at the University of Edinburgh’s St. Leonard’s Land Studios. It was wonderful to have so many folks there to warmly welcome this new work! I was touched that twenty-eight of you were present for this first showing, including many of the MSc Students in Dance Science & Education, pictured below!

(Students of the MSc Dance Science & Education at the University of Edinburgh’s St. Leonard’s Land Studio during the first open development showing of “The Art of Treepling” last week, photo by Lindsay Corr)

As I prepare for the second open development showing, I am going back Flett & Flett’s original chapter, reading, re-reading, and thinking so much about the ways they documented “treepling” in Scotland, “the art of beating out the rhythm of the music with the feet.” (1) Such rich description, their writing takes us to times and places where treepling was part of life, not only a means of movement, but a mode of socialisation. Their descriptions of the sounds of this dance form are especially rich: “Tacketty boots rattling away,” (1) “capering, rattling, shuffling.” (2) More on this soon!

If you missed the first showing, here’s a short clip of a section called “Treeple Time (3/4 + 3/2 excerpt)″. Special thanks to Lindsay Corr at the Scottish Storytelling Centre for capturing this moment! There will be a second public development showing on April 4th, hope to see you there!! 

“The Art of Treepling,” development showing 2

Thursday, April 4

4-4:30 pm

Dance Studio

St. Leonard’s Land, Holyrood Road

University of Edinburgh

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.

(1) Traditional Dancing in Scotland. Joan and Tom Flett, 1964, p. 260

(photo by Michael Erlewine)

I wanted to put together one last micro-post in advance of today’s free open development showing of The Art of Treepling, happening yes, TODAY from 4-4:30pm in St. Leonard’s Land Dance Studio, Holyrood Road on the campus of the University of Edinburgh.

The Art of Treepling (working title) is a new solo step dance work-in-progress that engages the work of dance collectors Joan and Tom Flett from their 1964 book Traditional Dancing in Scotland. In the final chapter of their text, the Fletts describe treepling, “beating out the rhythm of the music with the feet” (1) as an integral part of the landscape of Scottish Traditional Dance. Taking its name from this chapter, the solo step dance work The Art of Treepling engages with the Flett’s research in Scotland, as well as with other traditions of percussive dance from Ireland, Canada, and Appalachia, re-imagining treepling as a creative locus of interpretation for traditional music & dance from Scotland and beyond.

“The Art of Treepling,” development showing 1

Thursday, March 21

4-4:30 pm

Dance Studio

St. Leonard’s Land, Holyrood Road

University of Edinburgh

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.

As I prepare for tomorrow’s showing, I’ve been thinking about the ways that treepling, percussive stepping indigenous to Scotland defined by dance collectors Joan and Tom Flett as “beating out the rhythm of the music with the feet” (1) could act as a creative locus in encountering music from geographies outwith Scotland. If the defining characteristic of treepling is the articulation of musical rhythms using our southernmost appendages, how might we “treeple” rhythms and melodies from places that might not have their own version of treepling? How would our treepling need to flex in order to dance these other rhythms? What could we learn from this music as we embody it?

This made me think about music and dance from Norway, especially the hardanger fiddle repertoire so symbiotically connected to Norwegian traditional dance. One particular tune type in this repertoire, the Norwegian hamborgar, is a circling polka round dance form in which dancers occasionally stamp to punctuate their steps. (2) This aspect of the hamborgar seemed an entry point for exploration of treepling out this music. Here’s a version of a hamborgar as performed beautifully by Britt Pernille Frøholm and Irene Tillung, a Norwegian hardanger fiddle and accordion duo I first heard perform at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Aberdeen, Scotland.

(Frøholm/Tillung perform Andrea Berge, Hamborgar)

I’ve been a fan of Frøholm/Tillung’s sparse but deeply rich and colourful arrangements of traditional Norwegian dance music for over a decade but never thought about how to evoke the rhythms of their melodies and arrangements if I were to perform them solo. This posed a unique challenge: If I were going to articulate the rhythms of Andrea Berge’s hamborgar using percussive treepling footwork, how would I do it? And what of Frøholm/Tillung’s arrangement, to what extent would I need to evoke the extra-melodic musical choices they made to frame the tune, surrounding it like the setting around a precious stone in a ring? How would this stretch treepling? And how could treepling become music of its own, inspired by the specific melody, the performers, and culture from which it originates? Here’s an attempt...

Don’t miss tomorrow’s performance of Andrea Berge (Hamborgar) during the first Art of Treepling free open development sharing.

“The Art of Treepling,” development showing 1

Thursday, March 21

4-4:30 pm

Dance Studio

St. Leonard’s Land, Holyrood Road

University of Edinburgh

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.

(1) Traditional Dancing in Scotland. Joan and Tom Flett, 1964, p. 260

Greetings from St. Leonard’s Land Dance Studio at the University of Edinburgh where this week I’m preparing material for a public sharing of “The Art of Treepling” (working title), a new solo step dance work! Join me for the showing Thursday, March 21 from 4-4:30pm in the St. Leonard’s Land Dance Studio at the University of Edinburgh! I’ll be making daily micro-posts leading up to Thursday’s event and posting everyday so you can see what I’m working on!

(The sunny St. Leonard’s Land Dance Studio at the University of Edinburgh, location of this Thursday’s showing!)

In the final chapter of dance collectors Joan and Tom Flett's 1964 book Traditional Dancing in Scotland, the authors make reference to "the art of treepling." At the time of the text's publication, treepling, "beating out the rhythm of the music with the feet," was one of the lesser-known features of Scottish dancing and had almost entirely disappeared. (1) This new solo step dance work engages the Flett's original research, re-imagining treepling as a locus of creative interpretation of traditional music & dance in Scotland and other geographies in which treepling is found, including Ireland, Canada, and the Appalachian region of the United States.

(Original typeface from Flett & Flett’s Traditional Dancing in Scotland, p. 261)

As I started preparing the pieces for the sharing, I was reminded of a conversation in a Dublin bar between two collaborators of mine: Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser and Swedish percussionist Petter Berndalen. Alasdair asked Petter playfully, “how can you live in a world of three?” He was referring to the fact that the majority of traditional dance music repertoire is in the time signature 3/4. To this, Petter replied, “Yes, but in the world of three there many numbers.” This comment made me think about the fact that so many of the metres I love to work in are based in threes: 3/4, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8. These metres are found across step dance genres and localities: Waltz clogs from the north of England, brandies from Quebec, jigs from Cape Breton, slip jigs from Ireland.

When I teach step dance classes I often ask my students how these three-bases rhythms feel in their bodies compared to duple metres (2/4, 4/4). I often hear students say that it feels as though they have more time, that the luscious round grooves of triple metres make them feel more at ease. I frequently describe these rhythms as circular, with the percussive points of contact with the floor like the spokes of a wheel, the hands of a clock, or slices of a pie.

If I was going to put together a show about treepling or tripling, I couldn’t resist including some “treeple” time. I wanted to give a sense for the way these grooves feel playful and voluptuous, slipping seamlessly between them, first ascending (3/4, 3/8, 6/8, 9/8) and then descending in reverse order. I also wanted to gently allude to some of the traditional footwork motifs found in each of these time signatures. Here’s just the first moment from the piece-in-progress filmed today. Don’t miss your chance to see the piece in its entirety this Thursday!

(“Treeple Time” excerpt, 3/4)

“The Art of Treepling,” development showing 1

Thursday, March 21

4-4:30 pm

Dance Studio

St. Leonard's Land, Holyrood Road

University of Edinburgh

First Footing is a collaboration between dancer and dance researcher Nic Gareiss, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, University of Edinburgh Moray House School of Education, and the School of Scottish Studies with support from Creative Scotland. For engagement opportunities check out the First Footing website.