For those of you who saw the Gaorsach write up of DERT 2004 in the Morris Fed newsletter, here is a chance for you to read the literary masterpiece again. For those who didn't then now's your chance...
DERT 2004 - Baaaaarth
A Review From a Bunch of First Timers (and some not so first timers...)
As you may or may not know, Gaorsach Rapper and Step were spawned in the frozen wastelands of the far north. Think further than Newcastle. Past Glasgow. We're right up here, in Aberdeen... The birth is almost legendary (or it will be if we have anything to do with it), involving a couple of Rapper missionaries spreading the word to the far north, Claire's Accessories and fluffy bobbles, and eventually taking a bunch of complete rapper novices, and setting about making a team. The starting point was end of November 2002. A few of us went to DERT 2003 in Glasgow, simply so everyone knew what rapper was meant to look like (or in some cases not!), and see which figures looked good, get the name of the team and the figure (if possible) and steal it in a blatant and outright fashion.
A new dance was duly written, and eventually called 'The Thief's Dance' , owing to the fact that most of the figures had been nicked. In the traditional style of rapper teams everywhere, we didn't actually get around to learning the dance until 2 weeks before DERT.... A frantic 2 practices later, we were wholly underprepared for DERT, but just intended to go and have a good time, dance the new dance out, and sample the delights of a few of the local hostelries. Our kit (lovely red kilts) arrived from the kiltmaker about a week before DERT, and new shirts hastily bought. Before we knew it, DERT was upon us.
We headed down to DERT by a variety of routes, and methods, and just hoped that all the dancers, musicians and swords arrived in one piece, at the right time, and raring to go. The gods of the short bendy swords were smiling on us, and we all arrived in Bath (sorry, Baaaarth) with the minimum of fuss or incident, in time for several beers, and a good blether.
The Friday provided good craic, with plenty of beer, good organisation (well done Martin, Estelle and rest of team!!), and of course much in the way of pressure to purchase merchandise... Those in the team who were already rapper old hands caught up with people, and the newbies in the team set about meeting people, and getting to know who was who! The rapper world seem generally a fairly friendly bunch (especially with a beer in hand) and we were made to feel very welcome, with folk interested in how the team was doing, what we'd been up to in our first year, and if we were enjoying things!
The Saturday morning dawned, with much in the way of hangovers, a craving for a cooked breakfast, and a certain amount of nerves. Our new kits were donned, and were met with general approval! Kilts may not be traditional, but it is our nod to being a Scottish based team, and they look smart (well, as smart as a rapper dancer can ever look anyway).
We headed out to our warm up spot, and the nerves began to increase throughout the team. We'd never danced the dance out before at all, let alone in front of other rapper dancers!! We hung about nervously in the pub waiting for our turn, and then went on. As soon as the music started, we knew there was no going back. We all got through the dance in one piece (despite Aubrey and Phil's best heckling efforts...), and (dare we say it) even enjoyed it! We got a big round of applause, and people generally seemed to like the dance. Hurrah! One thing that was very noticeable throughout the weekend was the support of the other teams, and general feeling of good will. Everyone was very supportive of each other on our tour, and it really was very much appreciated. It made the whole experience very enjoyable, and much more relaxing than we thought it would be. Things learnt from our first dance out? 1) the kilts really do move nicely when dancing 2) unfortunately the kilts also move a lot when tumbling - much in the way of safety pants, thick tights, and big shorts required!!
After the warm up pub, we moved to the competition pubs. There were several minor disasters, falling over, hanging upside down on a tumble for an eternity, twisty ankles, bashed hands and the occasional look of pure terror, but overall it wasn't all that bad! We had an absolute blast, and achieved our main aim of a thoroughly enjoyable day of dance.
We headed back to the hall feeling the effects of the day, and also the effects of such a high adrenaline level being maintained all day! The final dance came and went, and despite the tired and aching bones, we danced to our limit again, and still enjoyed it!
The final scores came out, and we were placed a very credible 4th in the open with a final score of 70.6! We were unbelievable chuffed with this for our first DERT outing, with the only downside being that we will be expected to improve on this for next year now.
Thanks very much to this year's organisers (Martin etc.), it was a great event, with good pubs, a good bar at the hall, and an air of effortless organisation (although we're sure it was frantic for months before!!). Thanks also to all the other teams for making it such a great event to go to, and for making it such fun.
