{"id":86,"date":"2014-01-24T12:15:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T12:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kokakola.co.uk\/magazine\/?p=86"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:13:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:13:57","slug":"the-ruff-rolls-on-as-ceilidh-volunteers-get-in-step","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/?p=86","title":{"rendered":"The RUFF rolls on as ceilidh volunteers get in step &#8211; Jan 2014 Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By MIKE GREENWOOD<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Just about a twelve-month ago, I sat with Dave and Helen Parsons one Monday night in a northern Cardiff hostelry as we commiserated over a pint of good ale about the impending passing of the long-running series of ceilidhs that the couple were retiring from organising at Cardiff\u2019s Heath Hospital Sports and Social Club, just a stone\u2019s throw from where we were sitting.\u00a0 It was to be a case of RUFF Ceilidhs (1974-2013) RIP, with the final dance scheduled for Saturday, December 14, 2013.\u00a0 At the end of the night we cleared the table and pulled a shroud over what had been a legendary series of folk events in south Wales.\u00a0 The story was published in these web-pages last December.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-86 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/?attachment_id=323'><img width=\"500\" height=\"374\" src=\"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ruff-Ceilidh-1.png\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ruff-Ceilidh-1.png 500w, http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Ruff-Ceilidh-1-300x224.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl>\n\t\t\t<br style='clear: both' \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><i>Dance on: enthusiasts will organise the next round of Ruff Ceilidhs to show their appreciation for all the years of good work that Dave and Helen have contributed.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><i>Pictures by Imogen O&#8217;Rourke<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Well, let\u2019s all sing Hallelujah!\u00a0 Just one year on from that sombre meeting, I sat down again just a couple of weeks ago \u2013 again on a Monday night, and at the same table, in the same hostelry, with the same interviewees.\u00a0 But this time the meeting was convened to celebrate the eleventh-hour <em>salvation<\/em> of the RUFF ceilidhs, pulled from the brink by an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers. In last year\u2019s article, mention was made of the RUFF Folk Dance Club, first instigated by Dave and Helen in May 1989 on the back of the energy generated by the once-monthly ceilidhs.\u00a0 The Club has continued to meet on Monday evenings at St Andrews Church Hall in Birchgrove, independently of the dances at the Heath Hospital, and there have been murmurings amongst the regular attendees, as determined as the protagonists in the Stan Rogers song <em>The Mary Ellen Carter<\/em> who dreamed of the resurrection of a beloved sunken boat, that the RUFF ceilidhs couldn\u2019t be allowed to die.\u00a0 And what\u2019s more, they set out to do something about it!<\/p>\n<p>Whilst there is as yet no declared formal structure to the assembly of dancers who will take on the baton from Dave and Helen, local whistle-playing sessioneer Denis O\u2019Rourke acted as spokesman for my enquiries about the future. \u201cWe\u2019re keeping the roles fluid, so no-one becomes indispensible\u201d, he told me.\u00a0 The other core people involved &#8211; all regulars at the Monday night dance club \u2013 are Kevin and Jane Bush, Diane and Rob Moverly, Mic Spenceley and Lyndsay Bird, with Ian Lewis, who works in audio-visual communications, handling publicity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are another dozen or so who are willing to do things on the night, such as looking after the door, running the bar and tidying up\u201d, added Denis.\u00a0 Diane has recently retired from a school headmistress post, and is generally recognised by the others as the \u201corganiser\u201d!\u00a0 All except Ian were present at my meeting with Dave and Helen, who themselves will retain roles of \u201cadvisers\u201d \u2013 including suggesting and providing contact details for bands and callers, and easing the new management team into the tasks ahead.\u00a0 Whilst I chatted with Dave, Helen and Denis, the others were busy discussing insurances, new bank accounts and such \u2013 each one careful to avoid being shoehorned into a cabinet post, and keen to maintain the fluidity of roles that Denis had mentioned.<\/p>\n<p>Dave himself called the RUFF ceilidh on December 14, working with local band Juice, which features trac director, Danny Kilbride on guitar.\u00a0 The Christmas ceilidh had long been an annual fixture for Dave and Juice, and this one had a particular poignancy; it was the last ceilidh organised by Dave and Helen, and marked the hand-over of power to the new regime, whose members took over responsibility for running the following ceilidh on January 18 (the band will be Shropshire\u2019s All Blacked Up, with their in-built caller, Baz Parkes.)<\/p>\n<p>The spring series of dances is completed by Ceilidh Chasers, with Mic Spenceley calling on February 15, and Ceilidhography with Phil Bassingsale on March 22, before the usual summer break takes things up to next October. I\u2019m sure many others will join me in thanking Dave and Helen for all they\u2019ve done to promote social dancing in South Wales over these past four decades, and I wish every success to the movers and shakers at the RUFF Country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"excerpt\">By MIKE GREENWOOD &nbsp; Just about a twelve-month ago, I sat with Dave and Helen Parsons one Monday night in a northern Cardiff hostelry as we commiserated over a pint of good ale about the impending passing of the long-running series of ceilidhs that the couple were retiring from organising at Cardiff\u2019s Heath Hospital Sports&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/?p=86\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/379"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/folk.wales\/magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}