bath jmo day of dance

Sweyn’s Ey Morris attended the excellent Joint Morris Organisations Day of Dance held last Saturday in Bath on a lovely sun drenched day. We all reached Bath despite M4 closures and set up ready to dance in George St; with Rag Morris from Bristol University, and Wild Moon Border Morris who were dancing out for the first time, they being a new side.  
 
During our dance of British Grenadiers, Alex H lost a pair of glasses which Squire Ben managed to convert to bifocals by standing on them, despite Di’s best efforts to retrieve them! 
 
Rag Morris gave an accomplished set of Cotswold dances and Wild Moon performed a selection of Welsh Border dances with a degree of expertise which belied the fact they have only been together for a few months. They also have a remarkable Owl animal mascot. Our set included Y Gaseg Eira Nantgarw which drew interest & praise from the audience & other dancers. 
 
Sweyn’s Ey bade farewell to Rag & Wild Morris and joined with Treacle Eater Clog & Enigma Border Morris in Abbeygate Street. Some of us remember Treacle Eater Clog from years back as they used to attend the ISCA Morris Ales in the early 2000s. Our performance included a selection of dances from Adderbury, Bampton, Badby, Fieldtown and another airing of Y Gaseg Eira before taking our lunch break, with some going to Pulteney Bridge Weir, others going to the Crystal Palace Pub with the latter doing a tidy pint of London Pride Ale and also hosting a session that Mary Jo Searle (ex Sweyn’s Ey musician from 1973-1987) was playing in. Dave Lock, another ex Sweyn’s Ey dancer was enjoying a pint with Geoff, Paul and Andrea. 
 
Stall Street was our next dance spot in company with Styx Morris of Stroud and Chippenham Morris Men, where we performed to a large, ever changing crowd before moving on to Lulu Café where we danced alongside Malmesbury Morris and Belle D’Vain North West Morris for our final spot, where we all gave good account of ourselves to passers by who stopped to watch (I do like the captive audience that a very busy bus stop provides!) and where we managed to get everyone to join in with us with Bonny Green Garters Bampton to close, what was an excellent, very well organised day of dance.  ​

Alex's glasses about to be broken by the Squire.

Di has found them!

Wild Moon Morris

Treacle Eater Clog

Y Gaseg Eira - Nantgarw