Snoz Noz is dedicated to all forms of Cornish dance regardless of genre. At each Snoz Noz we will learn and practice dances from all over Cornwall and all over history. We practice modern Cornish social-dance (sometimes called Nos Lowen dancing), Cornish set-dance (structured dances such as those seen at a ceilidh, troyl or barn-dance) and Cornish step-dance (percussive dance done in clogs, taps or hard-soled shoes). Sometimes we will mix all the dances about too. We learn the dances accurately and then we break the rules.
Bring hard-soled shoes to the class as we will be teaching step-dances which rely on the percussive sound of the dancers' feet to compliment the music, be it instrumental or sung. Dances vary considerably in style depending on when they were written and where they were written but all have percussive footwork in common.
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Snoz (Snozzle - St Austell) Noz (Cornish for night) Snoz Noz is a 6 week workshop to explore all Cornish dance. These are run regularly in the St Austell area. Keep an eye on this page for details of the next workshops. We start with the simple social dances of which you can expect to learn 20 or more during the workshops. Once you are confident with the basic footwork, we bring in step dance, a big tradition in most areas of Cornwall. (bring hard-soled shoes, taps or clogs if you have them). We also teach set-dance (structured dances often seen at ceilidhs, troys or barn dances). These build on what you have learned while practicing the other dance forms. These dances are the root of most of the modern social-dances. We practice to an eclectic range of music; mostly Cornish but we like to mix in more familar tunes at times We add a new set-dance each week as well as practicing those we have learned in previous weeks. These can be more recently choreographed dances such as Cornish Express or Bude Mating Dance that are easy to pick up or follow, through to more formal structured dances like Cornish Squire or Corwedhen which take a few weeks for everyone feel confident with them
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The first half of each workshop is dedicated to learning social, set and step-dances. We review each week the dances already learned, then we add more dances to your repertoire. The social-dances can be picked up relatively easily; for all those who think they can't dance, we can show that you can. Each social dance can be done at your own energy levels, so everybody in the room will be doing the same dance but some as a technical exercise while some of us like to put our all into each dance and so it becomes an aerobic exercise.
We practice mainly to Cornish music (in all its forms) but some dances can be done to other music. The occasional Bob Marley, Dreadzone, or Guns 'n' Roses songs have been known to slip into the mix. We aren't too precious about the rules so if you have a piece of music you love, bring it along on CD or memory-stick and we will see what Cornish dances we can do to it.
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