|
We visited this magical village which was home to Dylan Thomas for a highly enjoyable evening dance out with Carreg Las Border Morris and Tipyn o Bopeth Welsh Dancers. Sadly Heb Enw Border Morris could not attend due to COVID.
The extreme, blistering heat earlier in the week gave way to more manageable temperatures on Wednesday leading to a perfect evening with demonstrations of the different dance styles of the Welsh dancers (gentle courtly dances), raucous Border dancing, and all round Cotswold and Welsh Morris. The Fountain pub was planning on closing early, but thankfully stayed open long enough for us to slake our thirsts with the very excellent Felinfoel Double Dragon which went down extremely well! Sweyns Ey started off with Field Town British Grenadiers/Skirmish, and finished with Y Caseg Eira Nantgarw, whilst in between these, several dances drawn from Fieldtown, Adderbury and Bampton were done. Of course, Bonnie Green closed the evening. Great to be dancing again with friends from west Wales, and hopefully we will repeat the gig next year!
0 Comments
A dance out on the slightly wild side in Wind Street commenced at the old Castle in fairly warm sunshine last night. Holidays had reduced our numbers but we were still able to give a good account of ourselves, dancing first at the Castle and then moving down to the No Sign Bar which had some tidy ale on tap. Paul was attracted, obviously, to the Cheddar Ale Potholer guest beer!
Wind Street is an interesting place to dance, and there is always the possibility of sets getting ‘invaded’ by people eager to join in, and this is exactly what happened with three lovely ladies who had been out celebrating wholeheartedly. There was also a manic food delivery cyclist who sped past one of our sets just a little too closely! An alternative set from Dorothy’s Bar tried to mimic us but dancing in Stilettos hampered their style and their hey and they soon gave up! Still, we performed enough dances in the heat to make people take note of us, and then we headed for the Queens Hotel in Gloucester Place where we had the usual warm welcome from people drinking there. Dancing continued until our legs started feeling like lead weights were attached to them at which point we gave up and chatted and drank instead, making plans to visit Laugharne next Wednesday evening! Great night out! On Saturday 9th July 2022 we performed at Pennard Carnival. We had Sian and Kev as main musicians with Alex D, Alex H, Alison, Keith, Ken, Nigel and Stewart dancing so 8 person dances were off the list.
The day started brightly in Kittle at 12 noon. We danced on the green to a small but appreciative audience. The Beaufort Arms opened up early for us as we can be persuasive. Highlight of the day was the ride on an open-top bus from Kittle to the roundabout by Southgate stores. Lowlight of the day was walking back through the village to the playing fields in a diesel cloud behind the lovely old bus. We managed to send some friends into the Southgate club to fill our tankards to help us cope with the heat and dry throats. The procession was bigger than previous years and lots of villagers were out on the street to cheer everyone on. Once at the carnival field there was the inevitable hanging around while we waited to perform in the main arena. We eventually danced a lively set of half a dozen dances but it was less than ideal as it was on grass and the audience were miles away. The carnival was busy and business was as brisk as ever at the W.I. tea and cake stall. We didn’t explore the carnival to any great extent as we were captivated by the MC and rooted to our spot by the arena. Words by Nigel. Wow! What a great evening to dance out, and with a near full complement of dancers too! Weather was hot and you could tell during the drive down to western Gower that we were going to be in for a treat of an evening.
The Britannia Inn is a sort of ancestral home for us as the side started life in 1966 in a hall across the road from the pub when the Mighty Men of Madoc were formed from young lads in the village who were keen to do Rapper sword dancing. There was the Half Penny Folk Club in the Brit and the side danced there regularly, and supported the folk club for several years. We revisit the Brit more or less annually and we gave a good varied display of Adderbury, Badby, Bampton and Fieldtown dances, in the sun, to a small crowd of people who were keen to see us. We had a couple of volunteers join us for a few dances. We went on to the King’s Head Llangennith and danced some more and included the important Welsh Morris dance Y Caseg Eira Nantgarw in our program. Again, it was hot and several people watched and enjoyed our dancing. |
Details
AuthorSMost of our blog posts are written by Paul Tarrant (our archivist), with occasional contributions from other members of the side. Each post goes up first on our Facebook page, alongside a lot more photos than we put on the blog. Check out our Facebook page right here if you want to see more! Archives
November 2024
Categories |