| FIGURES OF THE DANCE | |||
| Arches | Reverse | Diagonals | Arming |
| Righs and Lefts | Stars | Reverse and Finish | |
Always a mixed team dance it was part of the Rose Queen pageants. Trefors notes indicate that the pre 1914 team wore boots, men and women, rather than clogs. Collected @ 1970 TO.
The warm up dance, and also the main processional dance. This is the dance that every new recruit has to master simply to give folk a chance of taking a break in a long procession. The more dancers you have the more you can spread the load. But it can back fire. This dance has also been adapted to be a general massed stand finish for morris weekends, it's something different to the ubiquitous "Bonny Green Garters" of Cotswold fame. Oddly it was requested by Ripley Green Garters as the topic for a workshop we ran for them in February 2007. We then tried it out on some innocent young people at a Locos In Motion event at Sadberge in the June and it worked well. So if kids can do it why not you? Follow the notation link to get a view of what it might be! Memories Now a processional dance would normally involve forward movement in some figures. But in the practice hall where you would normally go forward you actually move back to maintain position on the display space. Every one clear about that? Comes a fine afternoon in the Lakes with Carlisle Sword and we suggest a processional move between dance spots. Grand idea say Carlisle - so we pointed out they would have to carry the bags whilst we strutted our stuff and off we went. All was going well until we noticed that at the back of the set Ian Booth was not getting the hang of the processional bit. Each processional figure saw seven dancers moving forward down the street whilst Ian staunchly moved backwards, exactly as he had been taught to do in the practise hall! So strong was the body imprint that we eventually had to plug in another dancer and send someone back to collect Ian. And it didn't end there. As we neared the next dance spot at the lakeside, Trefor decided that a spectacular arrival was necessary. Vaulting over a sign board advertising lakes cruises seemed a good idea and so off he goes at speed. With a single bound our hero cleared the board and disappeared from view, as he found that the board was actually on the edge of the promenade and beyond it was a four foot drop to the lakes edge. Fortunately the tide was out! Being the first dance of choice for a day out means that you get a chance to check that the dancers have alll shown up and have a complete set of kit. At a Mortimers Morris weekend we had the set up and ready to go when young William was seen to be capless. Without a pause for thought the caller pitched his own cap to Will and off we went. By the time final figure was called the Stevens support crew, or Vicki as she prefers to be known, had dug out Will's cap and handed it to the caller. In a single deft move two caps were exchanged with a neat fluid pitch and catch routine and we danced off. After we got off Zoe from Mortimers came up and asked if it was traditional for the caller to be bare headed for the first dance. The reply that "Well it's traditional as of five minutes ago" was probaly less than helpful. Meanwhile we had found that Will actually had a choice of two caps which plus the original callers cap gave us three and the possibility of adding a juggling routine to the performance. Just the one small problem - neither Will nor Doug can juggle. Then there was the night Mo Doonan arrived at practice expounding the theory that "Soul Man" by Sam and Dave, as played by the Solicitors of high repute (Wakefield's answer to The Commitments) would fit nicely as a tune for Gisburn. So theory put to the test and guess what Mo was spot on. Next thing we're on stage at the Wakefield theatre doing the routine as part of a charity gig. Then we did it again and again. One performance Malcom passes me in the set and says "Have you seen who's up in the gods?". We look up and there in splendid isolation is our Meg, grooving away for all she's worth. What a lovely little mover she is, even if she can't be with us for the full blown street displays she's always there with "notes" to keep us on our toes. Long may she continue to do so.