BSS News 18. 9. 2014

BSS 2014 from the organizers’ perspective

We invited Irish teachers of musical instruments with the plan to also use them during the evenings. Most of the participants will probably agree that we have selected first-class musicians as most participants of their lessons will confirm that they were also very good teachers. In line with our efforts to extend the lessons with another instrument we managed to introduce the concertina this year and replaced the bodhrán teacher as well. Also in this case I am sure that we‘ve chosen well.

We have tried to solve the venue of the sessions. It is not easy to find a place for a few dozen musicians and those wishing to dance. Having reached an agreement with the tenants of a ship moored on the waterfront, I thought that I have won. Immediately after the first evening it turned out that our ideas and theirs were a little different. I do not think that this was remedied with the measures of the next two nights so we will wait for a response from you. Sessions held in the school building were a little problematic for us. They seemed as if BSS was held because of them and the rest was some kind of “endured” accompanying programme. At times, I felt like at a school trip, where students come to release the „floodgates“ of their emotions and I, as a responsible teacher, must watch over them. For the next year we will certainly set such rules that will rid us of the potential risk of complaints from the neighbourhood, complaints from the school management, complaints from other users of the common areas, who prefer to sleep in preparation for the challenging lessons and which will also allow rest for the person at the reception. I guess we will also restrict access to people – supporters from the street, who are not sleepy even at 3 am and spend their time not really quietly in front of the school building. We fear that everything would have been even worse, if Roman Táborský and Pawel Rewucki had not played a positive role and helped in compliance with the agreed rules. We believe that we have never in the past hindered good fun, and we won’t do so in the future either, if some of the participants will not ruthlessly take up more rights than collectively bearable.

We have changed the venue of the ceilí evening – participants did not have to bear complicated travel to the KC Novodvorská and we found a very nice and historically interesting place in the room of the New Town Hall.

Jakub Šůra volunteered to fill the position of the receptionist, which was a good choice for us. Not only for the fact that the „Kuba“ position was again held by a Jakub, but for the fact that he was very good and reliable. He was most helpful, unselfish, and understood very quickly what was going on and where we most needed his help. I’m afraid that, especially in the second half of the summer school he’d been performing his function to the limits of his physical strength, which was being exhausted especially at night by the „needs“ of the musicians. He was the first Kuba, who was not only praised by the participants, but who, was when leaving, was rewarded by the present participants with a spontaneous applause. Thank you, Jakub.

This year we organized the third exhibition of photographs at BSS of someone who basically grew up on dance photos – Milan Hašek. His beginnings are associated with photographing Rinceoirí and that is where he made a number of interesting photos. Today he is already an all-genre photographer and so one can find other topics among his works. I admit that we did not feel many people have stopped to see the exhibited photos. Am I wrong? Do such exhibitions make sense or are the participants interested only in photos with them? We would appreciate some feedback here.

Insufficient amenities of accommodation (lack of a kitchenette, large refrigerator, microwave oven etc.) will probably continue. The school will hardly get any of such equipment for us, and we as organizers probably either. The accommodation in the school is kind of a solution for those who want to stay close and with little cost. We have no more goals in this area. Even so, cleaning the mess in the staff room of the school, where the kitchenette was located, and some rubbish bins in the corridors was quite nauseating for us.
Internet connection will be treated similarly. The school does not provide it, and we are of the opinion that it is only right for the participants to communicate with each other instead of sitting at a computer and surfing the internet. Whoever cannot bear to be without a connection for a week can take care of their own mobile connection. 
We would like to express respect and admiration for the participants, who approached the lessons, which they applied for as their responsible preparation for future dancing and playing, they were going to class on time and regardless of being tired, attended the accompanying programmes. They have thus contributed to the pleasant atmosphere and the success of the event. We would appreciate if they spoke about what they liked at the summer school among their peers and thus spread the interest in Irish culture. We would like to thank the participants staying in the school for having cleaned the classrooms where they were staying, taking out the rubbish and putting the furniture back in its place.

Václav Bernard
on behalf of the BSS 2014 family organisation team

Václav Bernard