Dance Sides 2019
Anonymous Morris are a mixed sex Border Morris side based in Poole, with an aim to promote morris among young adults. This does not mean we are exclusive to this age range; we accept most dancers and musicians of any age as long as they can keep with our dance style. We also don’t discriminate based on sex, ethnic group, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. When we say this, we mean it.
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Hobos Morris is a female border morris side, formed in 1993 and based in Poole, Dorset. Our first season, in 1994, coincided with the 50th Anniversary of D-Day. Major-General Percy Hobart of the 79th Armoured Division, produced and commanded the unusual tanks needed for the Normandy beach landings – affectionately known as Hobos Funnies! Their regimental colours were red, black and mustard, and their emblem the Raging Bull. The name provided us with our colours, badges and a bit of history. Perfect.
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Blackrock School Of Irish Dancers
Irish dancers aged between 3-18, based is Yeovil. Dresses are traditional with lovely Celtic embroidery, all made by hand.
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In 1936, a group of miners in the village of Lingdale in Yorkshire were filmed by Lady Trevelyn, performing their traditional longsword dance. In 1948, Peter Kennedy wrote down all the moves of the dance, which had gained an extra two figures in the intervening years.
In 2016, Southern Star Longsword dancers, with the aid of the Sword Dance Union and detailed notes written by Roy Dommett, brought together all the historical information about this dance, and started bringing it back to life again.
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A “scratch” side dancing and studying English Jigs, to be an expert resource in English Jig Dancing.
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The side was formed from a group of friends who love Morris Dancing. At the beginning of our inaugural meeting, on 16th January 2011, we had no name, no kit and the practice season was half way through. Fortunately, however, we did have a place to practise, courtesy of the 1st Lyndhurst Scouts. We were lucky enough to be able to use the new hall that is part of the Scouts’ newly completed home, Deorfrith Lodge in Lyndhurst.
Deorfrith is a word – two words actually – that may be found in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400). The first part, ‘deor’, means an animal, commonly a deer. The second part, ‘frith’, has a number of meanings, but essentially it refers to peace, security or sanctuary. So, put simply, ‘deorfrith’ means ‘deer preserve or sanctuary’.
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were formed in 1985. We are a ladies only dance side although both male and female musicians are welcome.
We dance in the North-West Tradition. Our dances mainly originate in Cheshire and Lancashire but include some garland dances from all over the country and some we have arranged ourselves.
The team wear colourful handmade costumes and clogs styled on traditional wear for the mill workers in the North of England during the nineteenth century.
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MORENA Dance Company is a Slovak folk dance group set up in December 2001. MORENA Dance Company offers very colourful, energetic, fast, temperament and quite physical show based on Slovak dance.
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Baharah Belly Dance
The Baharah dancers meet in a weekly class in Swanage to learn authentic dance moves which they use in their own choreographies to a range of Arabic music, traditional and modern. You will spot them from afar, as their costumes are a riot of colour!
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Southern Lights display ladies’ traditional folk dance in a Southern style i.e. no clogs, no marching, no big drums or big flowery hats as you would find in the North West of England.
Many will have heard of men’s Morris dancing, but Southern Lights offer something rather different. They use small sticks, hankies, mollies (twirlers), ropes or anything else that comes to mind, including absolutely naked hands. Their aim is to keep the ladies dancing tradition alive, give it modern relevance and bring it to the public’s attention.
Most of their repertoire consists of dances created for the side, using traditional steps and formations in an innovative way.
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Based in Bournemouth, Dorset; we dance in the Cotswold tradition at a variety of festivals, local pubs and other venues. Please visit our website for our summer dance program and other options for contacting us.
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was formed in 1982. We are named after Sarum the Roman settlement which, through the centuries, has grown and evolved into the present day beautiful City of Salisbury. Sarum Morris is a mixed Cotswold Morris side comprising of both men and women dancers and musicians. The dances that we perform are from the Cotswold villages of Bampton, in Oxfordshire, Ilmington in Warwickshire and Oddington in Gloucestershire, as performed and collected over 100 years ago. During the spring and summer we dance out at folk festivals, country fairs, village fetes, local pubs, Morris ale weekends and days of dance in and around Salisbury and a little further a field in Southern England.
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Spank the Planks were formed in 1988 and are based in Bournemouth, Dorset. They specialise in Appalachian clog dancing which is a form of American folk dancing that originated in the Appalachian Mountains. The local people developed their own musical sound, playing mainly fiddles and banjos and complimenting the music with a percussive dancing style that used shuffles, taps and scuffs to keep time. The dancing was exciting – very fast and very loud – particularly exhilarating as it was usually done on wooden floors and verandahs.
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Currently we are enjoying dances from a wide variety of countries eg Croatia, Russia, Israel, England, Sweden as well as a few dances from the circle dance tradition.
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Old Speckled Hen are a mixed side based at Milton Heights near Abingdon and Didcot, but they have people coming from Wantage to Wallingford and Abingdon to Newbury. They dance at local pubs, fetes and festivals throughout the Summer and practice every Thursday evening from September – April at Milton Heights Community Centre, Didcot.
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Dance Workshops
We will have a Longsword workshop in the early afternoon run by one of the members of Anonymous Morris. Time and location to be confirmed.