DANCES

Back in 1976, when "Adam were a lad" and some of us were a lot younger than we are today we began by learning Westmorland Step dancing, also known as Lakeland Step Dancing, we were taught initially by Lyndsey Smith, Tom Fletts daughter, and Marion Elliot, a local dancer who had been taught by Tom.

We began by learning an eight step hornpipe routine and as we learned the steps, our newly acquired musician, Neil Parkinson, learned the fiddle, the first tune being Soldiers Joy, then progressing to The White Cockade, The Fairy Dance and Roxburgh Castle

We learned two further hornpipe routines then began to write our own routines using the steps from the hornpipes. Over the years we have also danced "Sam Sherry's Lancashire Hornpipe", some of us having been taught by Sam himself and some of the team also perform the Lancashire Waltz and the Lancashire Jig. At one time we attempted the Durham Hornpipe, but have never danced it out.

One of the team has written a routine in 5/4 time to the tune "Take Five" and we wait with bated breath and clogs akimbo for her to teach the rest of us.

Clicking on many of the tunes below will display the sheet music, while clicking on the '♫' symbol should play a synthesised version of the tune.

The step dances which we currently perform (together with their associated tunes) include:-

Still on our list, but 'on the shelf' for now, include:-

In 1981 we decided to add Morris dancing to our skills. Many that we perform are from the North West tradition, but by no means all and we perform all our Morris in shoes. Over the years we have also tried our hand at writing our own morris as well, but only one of these dances remains in our repertoire, namely "Badgers Set"; written in 1987 to commemorate the Golden anniversary of the National Parks and named after their visitor centre at Brockhole.

We wrote a very pretty hankie dance called "Hutton Hey" named after New Hutton, the village where Joan, our squire of the time, lived. We wrote a garland dance called "Mind the Gap" after our first visit to London and we wrote a dance called "The Kendal Weaver" using woollen mollies, made in Kendal Green, and danced to some of the tunes played on the Town Hall Carillon. Perhaps the fact that these dances have not survived says it all, though if anyone still has the notation, Hutton Hey would be worth reviving.

A few of the dances have a genuine recording which will play by clicking (♫♫) but it should be noted that this downloads quite a large file and might take some time. 

The dances we currently perform include:-

Still on our list, but 'on the shelf' for now, include:-

Credit should be given to Belfagan Ladies Morris from Cockermouth for their eponymous dance, "Belfagan" and to "Lizzie Dripping" who taught us "Greenham". The dance was actually written by team members who visited the Greenham Common Peace Campaigners camp way back in the 80's. They wrote it as a tribute to the women there, using the image of encircling the base.

Wherever we go, our aim is to keep the spirit and enthusiasm of traditional English Dancing alive and very much kicking.