This was what Sunday’s activity was all about:
this is the first dance out we have had in a while, and it was great fun 😀 One of our local breweries Darkstar brewery was holding a hopfest, and way back in the mists of time (about May) they asked us to perform for them…
last week…we looked at their program and they discovered that we had been forgotten about 😦
Never fear however, the problem was rectified and we were shoehorned into
the program… this didn’t bode well for a fun and successful dance out…but in the end it turned out well 🙂
The first stand was at The Partridge, a pub in the village where the brewery was, we he a fairly confined dance space and we kept nearly knocking over the girl who was bravely trying to bring out people’s lunches past us, but we had an excellent audience and (for once) a nice flat area to dance in 🙂
At this stand I did 4 dances: Maiden castle, Standing Stones, broomstick dance and Fanny frail.
then we walked over to the Brewery for the second half…it was a 15 min walk, so that helped the exercise!
The second stand took place inside the brewery its self, the enclosed space made our music and whooping sound awesome! It all added to an excellent atmosphere!
<—– look dancing inside in the brewery! I am in that one, I am the blur of speed on the left hand side, the one you can see a little bit of red on 🙂 I love this photo because it shows the speed and enthusiasm with which we attack each dance, this particular dance being (the now infamous) Spank the Monkey!
at this stand I did (initially) 3 of the dances, Spank the Monkey, foul-mouthed Cat and Fanny Frail and then…for possibly the first time in the history of Morris Dancing…we got an encore!! hehe an encore!! so we danced the most excellent Thor’s Hammer!
All in all it was a very good day of dancing, and you have to remember that throughout all of this intensely energetic activity…we are dressed like this:
with a lot of extra material and a mask to cut out oxygen intake, and we are wearing boots that weigh 1.5kg each 🙂 lots of fun 🙂
after we finished, all that remained was to walk the 15 mins back to my car with the cheers of our adoring fans ringing in my ears (well…sort of)
So day 100 spectacularly complete 😀
PS…100 days! I can’t believe I have worked out every day for 100 days 😀
PPS…I was driving…so I didn’t undo all my good work by sampling the beer on offer 🙂
Project Warrior Goddess 
YAY for 100 Days!!! 265 to go! Yay Sam!
Okay, so now that I’ve been following you for a couple of months, I have to finally ask, why do you guys have to dress that way? What is the history behind it?
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we are a border Morris side, and the dances and tradition originates in the welsh / english border area. Traditionally the miners / farm workers wanted to dance the traditional dances, but they weren’t allowed to dance for money by their bosses, and the christian church didn’t like them doing this type of dancing so they would disguise their shape by pining rags on their clothes and would black up their faces with soot. our kits are a stylised version of this…masks are far easier than painting your face black and somewhat less controversial!
or that is what we think anyway, a lot of the history has been lost!
the New rock boots are a later addition and not obligatory…they are pretty heavy to dance in 🙂
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fascinating!
the boots look very cool, but they must be a bitch to dance in. (All the better a workout, though!)
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the boots are awesome! I have quite a few pairs and I wear them most days 🙂 it is a better work out, but I am so used to them that to me they don’t feel heavy any more!
I find it harder to dance in normal shoes or trainers because I am so used to my boots 🙂
(other people don’t necessarily feel the same)
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I sometimes forget it is not obvious!
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