I had different, but very interesting, evening on Sunday as Lewis Wood presented his début solo album “Footwork” in a local church. There’s something special about church concerts. The openness and height of the ceiling create a space where the sound can move and the architecture provides an impressive backdrop. St Saviours is a lovely example, with impressive brickwork arches. Considering it’s only just over 100 years old it has a feeling of timelessness that brought the tradition alive.
All the music is for Footwork was written by Lewis and it’s a celebration of English step dancing in its many forms. The music is very good but what made the evening special is that Lewis has turned it into a stage show. It wasn’t just the playing and dancing, but he’d recorded step dancers talking about their experiences. This ranged from somebody in the Traveller community telling us how they would get together simply as a social event, to people who took part in competitions. What came through from them as a common theme was the desire to pass on their skills to a new generation so the tradition remained alive. We were part of that as the audience participation section of the evening involved learning a few steps. Georgia Lewis narrated the evening, as well as playing accordion and dancing, giving us more of the background to the art as we travelled around the country from the South-East to North and South West again bringing it to life.
Aaron Horlock accompanied Lewis on guitar and melodion, with Lewis showing what a fine fiddle player he is. He has that delicate touch but without making it sound too refined, very well suited to the subject. Completing the show, and being the point of it, Simon Harmer and Toby Bennett showed us the dances in their various forms.
Played over two sets the dancers certainly earned their corn and the easy style and smiles hid the very heavy breathing as they sat down for a well earned rest. There was a lot of humour to the evening as well. In one part of the country the dancer has to stay on a board 15 inches square, except in one town where the board is 18 inches because they always do things bigger and better. Some places use props, and a broom becomes an essential part of the dance. Some of it seemed quite familiar so it was no great surprise to learn that some dancers took their skills into music halls, which then fed back into the general dance population. Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel and Ernie Wise all started out as dancers and, by adapting the shoes, step moved into tap.
It was a lovely evening, with a good sized attentive and interested audience with a wide age range. Huge thanks have to go to Watford Folk Club and St Albans Folk Music who came together to give us a real treat. The album was released in 2022 and is available as a digital download on Bandcamp or a CD at live shows.
