Day of Dance, National botanic gardens of wales

‘Never mind the weather, As long as we’re together!’ is a line from a song and it seemed very appropriate to the Day of Dance which was hosted by Tipyn y Bopeth at the Wales Botanical Gardens at Llanarthne just east of Carmarthen. Weather was very fickle and torrential rain almost flooded the M4 when driving to the event.

Sweyn’s Ey were able to field a good team despite holiday absences and we had a strong force of three musicians with Sian, Kevin and Roger. It was great seeing Erin join us again for her first dance out since May Day! One of our members (Keith) danced and played music with Tipyn for the first half of the day, before donning Sweyn’s Ey kit and joining us for some dances. This versatility on Keith’s part drew positive comment from someone in a non local Welsh dance side! Nice to hear.

So, who were the other dance sides at this year’s Day of Dance? The aforementioned Tipyn Y Bopeth were there in some strength, as were Danswyr Talog from Carmarthen who danced with a contingent of youngsters which was good to see. Pontypool had a strong side and there were other dancers from Welsh dance groups in Caernarfon, Aberystwyth, Pen Y Fai, and Aelwyd Caerdydd.

Our own David Evans /Dafydd Evans did an excellent job managing and compèring the event, introducing each team’s dance in Cymraeg and English. Sadly he was not able to dance with us on this occasion as he was dancing with Tipyn.

Dancing was possible outside the Theatre for the first part of the day but eventually, with heavier blustery showers forming, we had to move indoors to dance, but Dafydd’s organisational skills had accounted for that eventuality.

We danced well, drawing mainly on the Adderbury & Bampton dances, but we were also able to do Fieldtown and Badby too. We danced Vandalls Lichfield which featured a bit of free form interpretation of the Hey by some, but I don’t think many noticed! Anyway, the photos will tell the story of the day, with several being taken by Andrea, some by Stewart and most by me.

Another highly enjoyable day out, although most of the side missed the considerable quantity of tea, sandwiches and cakes at the end of the event!

Words & Photos by Paul Tarrant, with photographic help from Stewart Wright & Andrea Jessup.