Society Spy: You Spin Me Right Round Baby

This week Society Spy joined The Round. ‘What is this?’ we hear you ask and all kinds of possibilities spring to mind. Perhaps we had joined a group of professional fast food eaters with the sole aim of ‘round’ weight distribution, or maybe some highly illegal cult gathering of kangaroo boxing enthusiasts, or possibly this was no kind of society at all and just a master con to make us buy everyone at the Tab a drink in the pub. Actually, we found ourselves in a dimly lit church hall in the company of the Cambridge University society dedicated to English Folk Dance. Founded in 1926 by Newnham undergraduates, The Round has links to the other folk dancing societies within the university such as Gog Magog Molly (East Anglian dance tradition) and the Men’s Morris Dancing Society, which no longer exists!

Having done ballet training for 15 years, one of your covert operators was quietly arrogant about the fact that trying any other dance style would be a walk in the park, much in the same way as Alan Titchmarsh seems to think that being able to do a bit of weeding gives him a licence to present every Sunday tea time programme that the BBC commissions. However, just as Alan was proved wrong when he quickly started to annoy a large section of the British public, this ballerina came down to earth with a bump when we joined in with the first dance of the night. The dances are more like maths equations than routines, with a ‘caller’ at the front of the hall issuing instructions for intricate footwork and complex group shapes. The group formation entitled ‘Hay Sheep Skin’ soon had both of us treading on people’s toes like clumsy elephants as the link between the dance steps seemed to us to be as confusing as any contemplated links between hay, sheep and skin. All serious respect to the people who do this every week, they must be geometrical genii!

The dance moves were not the only challenge facing the other member of your Society Spy team, who has had a deep rooted fear of women over the age of 60 ever since having a part time job in Marks and Spencer. Members of The Round include students, fellows and the general public, from all age groups, so the possibility of being partnered with one such member didn’t sit very well with this phobia. However, the experience of The Round was a process of rehabilitation, as one of the merits of this society is the amicability of all members and the integration of students and fellows as friends.

On the social side, the Round holds celidhs, (pronounced kaylees), which are big parties with dancing (think scenes from a Jane Austen novel in the style of Lord of the Rings). Accompanied by a live band of traditional instruments, the caller shouts out the movements and the dancers perform them in perfect unison, without ever having rehearsed the specific combination. This may sound a bit antiquated and lacking in the fun factor to Cindie’s regulars but don’t knock it before you’ve tried it. With dance sequences entitled ‘Devil’s Dream’, ‘Bonny Breast Knot’, ‘The Demented Seagull’ and ‘Mr Beveridge’s Maggot’ we fail to see how this could not equate to a memorable night. In fact, all these routines are notated on The Round’s website, so if you’re not brave enough to actually go along to a celidh, we can promise that trying this stuff out with your housemates beats the clichéd night in with a game of Twister. However, as we have not road tested it and are slightly concerned by its name, we cannot accept any responsibility if ‘Mr Beveridge’s Maggot’ leads to you committing one or more offences under English law. The celidhs see full participation from all present without this being induced by alcohol, definitely putting to shame regular nights out when people cower in corners hiding behind a bottle of WKD until they have enough ‘Dutch courage’ to hit the dance floor. We thank the members of The Round for welcoming us into their society and guiding us around the dance floor so energetically that we couldn’t help but enjoy it.  Who needs 15 years in a leotard and tights to experience the joys of dance and who needs a stint in M&S to engage in cross generational banter, when the Round is around?