Dancers appearing at FolkStation 2010
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Aelfgythe
Ladies Border Morris Team
Taking the name from which Alvechurch derived, Aelfgythe are a ladies border morris side who dance with sticks and the traditional black faces.
Click on the image for more details.
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Icknield Way Morris Men
Icknield Way Morris Men are a nationally known side that perform at festivals, weddings, parties and shows all over the country, but mainly in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. |
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Mr Baker's Dozen is a traditional English dance side from the Isle of Wight.
Mr Baker's Dozen meandered into existence some time in the late nineties, brainchild of its founder and perpetual Squire, Mr Baker himself. From the start, its mission statement was to do all those things that the other dance sides on the island didn't do. (Because they have more sense?) The Men of Wight do Cotswold; the Oyster Girls and Wight Bells do North-west; The Island Cloggies do cloggy things. So Mr Baker's Dozen is there to step in the breach and handle everything else.
Street dancing? Yup, we do it. Molly dancing? Yup, we do it (though it kills our legs.) Border? Check! Playford? Of course! Country dancing? Yes. We even perform a sheet dance, a portable Maypole dance, and a drinking dance.
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Mr Baker's Dozen
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Ducklington Morris
We are a mixed-sex Morris dancing side from the village of Ducklington, in West Oxfordshire. Ducklington has its own village tradition of Morris dancing but the original Ducklington side died out around about the turn of the twentieth century, and the current side was revived in the early nineteen-eighties. The style of our dances is based on our interpretation of the Ducklington tradition, although we have added some dances of our own to those recorded, often by adapting the sequences of other, related traditions' dances to our own figures and style. |
The Oyster Girls
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The Oyster Girls is a ladies' Morris dance side from the Isle of Wight.
The side has been dancing for over twenty years, though with much change of personnel over the years. The very first dance that the group learned was to the tune "The Oyster Girl", hence the name.
The Oyster Girls dance in the north-west tradition of Morris dancing, and wear clogs while dancing. Many of our dances originate from the north-west of England (or "the mainland", as we call it), but others we have made up ourselves in a similar style. We call it the Isle of Wight tradition, and it is very very old, dating all the way back to the last Millennium! Some of our dancers are even older... Watch the video |
The Wight Bells
The Wight Bells are a ladies morris side based on the Isle of Wight who dance in the North West tradition.
Our roots began in 1998 and we started dancing out in May 1999.
We practice dancing during the winter months in Newport, the county town of the Isle of Wight, on a Thursday night. Throughout the summer we dance out every week at various locations and events on the Island. Our dances are named after some of these local places. |
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The Men of Wight
The Men of Wight Morris Men are a team (or side) of Morris Men, who live and dance on the Isle of Wight. The side was formed in 1970, and has been dancing solidly ever since. The dances we do come mostly from the Cotswolds, though there are a few from elsewhere in the country, and we have even been known to do the odd bit of sword dancing. We perform on Thursday evenings from May to September, normally at one pub at 8:00 pm and another at 9:00, and at the occasional weekend do. From October to April we practice indoors instead. Click on the image for more information.
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Bloodstone Border Morris is the newest Morris dance team on the Isleof Wight, set up during the summer of 2009. We take our name from Bloodstone Copse, the source of the Monkton Mead. It is said that this was the site of an epic battle between the Saxons and the Danes, where so much blood was spilt, it coloured the stones at the spring blood red. Some say this is untrue and that the stones are a red
colour due to algae growing there. Who is right? You decide... click on the image to learn more ...
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Eastern Promise Bellydancers
Belly dance is the oldest and most fascinating dance, fantastic for fun and fitness. It originates from the Middle East and North Africa, and one of the most common misconceptions of belly dance is that it was intended to entertain men; however due to segregation of the sexes in these countries men rarely witnessed it.
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Boydle O'Dowda Irish Dancers
This Island branch of the Boyle O'Dowda School of Irish Dance is taught by Susan Burgess, who has been teaching Irish Dancing for more than 17 years. They are based at St Michael’s Church in Ryde and produce much admired, stunning performances.
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The Ploughboy Morris
We are very pleased to announce a surprise guest Morris side from Dorking Surrey. |
 The Island Cloggies
Clog dancing, or more accurately, step dancing in clogs is essentially a North of England tradition and has been around since about the beginning of the 19th century, when clogs became the common footwear for the working classes in the North of England. It developed as a street tradition and was later taught in the gymnasiums that were prevalent during that period in Lancashire and in the dance schools of what is now the Lakeland District. It evolved into a stage act on the Music Halls with such artistes as Dan Leno and Charlie Chaplin. There were also competitions to find champion clog dancers, some of which survive today in the North. Its popularity as a stage act declined in the early 20th century with the advent of tap dancing, which owed its origins to step clog dancing. It is in fact noted that Fred Astaire was taught to dance by a traditional clog dancer. Happily when folk dance had its revival in the sixties and seventies a few of the old dancers were still able to teach a whole new generation of clog dancers.
The Island Cloggies have been in existence since 1975/6. "At present we have eight regular dancers, two in training and four musicians. Our aim is to entertain. We choreograph all our own routines, endeavouring to make them as entertaining and lively as we can. Over the years our biggest point of discussion has always been the thorny question of costume. Getting seven or eight women to agree on a dress code is not easy. We have ranged from a working class Victorian look to our present funky modern look. Although we are a female team there is absolutely no reason why men cannot dance with us and we would be delighted to find any man brave enough to come and have a go!"
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