Dance Sides 2017
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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Sidmouth Steppers Ladies North West Morris was formed in 1998 following the 45th Sidmouth International Folk Festival. Most of the dances that the Sidmouth Steppers perform originated in the North of England and were performed by mill workers at holiday festivals and in processions. Clogs are worn for the dances as these were traditionally worn by the mill workers. Accessories used in the dances are bobbins and perns from the spinning mills, decorated sticks, garlands and handkerchiefs. Music for the dances is traditionally quite loud. Usually it is led by melodeons but accompanying instruments may range through stringed, brass, wind and percussion instruments. Since their formation, Sidmouth Steppers have danced out each season with an increasingly busy programme.
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We are Mayflower Morris, a women’s team dancing in the North West style. Based in Ash Vale on the Surrey/Hampshire border, we perform traditional, new and swapped clog dance routines with precision and energy.
Wyld Morris are a mixed Morris side of dancers and musicians dancing in the Cotswold tradition. The side was born in the autumn of 2010 out of a love of the Morris and the lack of a local side that would accept a woman dancer!
Based in Swanage, Baharah Bellydance teaches belly dancing to women over the age of 16 from Swanage and the surrounding area.
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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Rapper dancing is sword dancing. Not, of course, the effete style of sword dancing beloved of the Scots, in which they put the swords on the ground and prance around them at a safe distance. No; Englishmen keep firm hold of their swords — and of their neighbour’s swords — and dance linked together by their swords. Indeed, it’s often said that it’s the swords that do the dancing.
There is no tradition of Rapper Sword in Dorset, apart from our own that is. As with the Ladies team we’ve borrowed our dance from the north of England. But we do wear clogs for our dance, and in that we are probably more traditional than most other Rapper teams. Clogs would have been the working footwear of the miners who did these dances. They would certainly not have worn the soft tap-shoes favoured by most contemporary teams.
Fleet Morris was formed in 1984 and been dancing out since the summer of 1985. The side has a wide repertoire of dances, mainly in the Cotswold style.
Our dances are based round those from the villages of Adderbury, Bampton, Ducklington, Fieldtown and Lichfield, with a few Border dances thrown in to change the tempo.
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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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. We are working on a new web site, which contains pictures from recent performances at Rochester, Swanage and Tenterden. There are also pictures from our 10th anniversary party which was held in May 2012. Follow this link to the new site, which also lists our programme of performances in 2015. We have over ten years of performing history in various festivals and private events and are experienced in running workshops for adults and children.
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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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The New Forest Meddlars is a mixed Morris dance side, formed in 1990 and based in Lyndhurst in the New Forest. We dance mainly in the Cotswold and Border traditions, but vary our performances with new dances, some collected at festival workshops and some we devise ourselves.
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.
Deli on the Quay dance spot
Tesco dance spot