Ragtime to Rock
For several years now, Fly Right Dance Company has been working on its new show, Ragtime To Rock, which we are aiming to tour throughout Scotland later in 2013. We’re currently exploring a tour of it in the Western Isles, so watch this space for more news, as stuff is happening in a fast and furious manner…
What is it, we hear you cry? Well, Ragtime to Rock is a one-man, two-person show which presents a gentle, light-hearted (and educational) foray through the fascinating history of social dancing over the last hundred years. Using live dance, archive material, some pretty dog-eared pictures and clever costume changes, Gary and Susan will answer all the questions you never really asked about those dance crazes from Ragtime to Rock!
How d’you do the Turkey Trot? Where did the Quickstep come from? Will Brucie ever retire? And how do the French Jive?!
Background
Well, it all seemed like a good idea at the time – Fly Right Dance Company putting on a show about the history of social dancing over the past hundred years or so. It all started with Midlothian Council commissioning Fly Right to present a series of ten shows in Midlothian for Seniors’ Week in October 2010 – filling a ninety-minute slot with some dance entertainment. Just the two of us, on stage, with a bunch of tunes, lots of costumes and some trivia about dance history – somehow it came together and was a great success! Even though ten shows in five days was quite a marathon. We couldn’t have done it without the help and support of Vivian and Janet (wardrobe mistress, technician and general all-round good egg!).
But after it was all over, and we got the feedback – which was great and most positive – we decided to put in a bit more research time and fine-tune the show to give a more polished end-product. So that’s it, in a nutshell!
Over the years, Fly Right has amassed a wealth of information about dances such as the Turkey Trot, the Collegiate Shag, the Maxixe (pronounce it as you see fit!) and the French Jive; they’ve plumbed the depths that are plumbable and have dredged up some interesting nuggets of Trivial Pursuit gold which they would like to dump pass on. Gary and Susan will show their amazing versatility to perform well-practised, but non-choreographed dances (’cause that’s how real social dancing is done) across a wide range of styles.
In a nutshell, Ragtime to Rock is about taking a whimsical look at social dance, busting some myths and, above all, showing in a fun yet informative way how social dance has evolved.