Here’s a review of a workshop to learn a socially distanced dance for 4 dancers, run by Chinewrde Morris from Kenilworth, Warwickshire. It was attended by people from the UK, Jersey, USA and even Australia (it was 3 am their time!).
“Another great opportunity provided by the Morris Fed to jump around on a Sunday morning and pretend you were actually dancing with the 178 other people on the Zoom call.
“Hazel Old introduced her Lockdown dance and explained that it had come into being when she was complaining about not being able to dance due to social distancing rules – and was told “then you’d better write a socially distanced dance”! My side was particularly interested in this, as we also tried to design our own lockdown dance last summer when we were able to dance outside in a local Park.
“It was great to be able to see the video of Chinewrde actually dancing this dance at Kenilworth Castle on Boxing Day – one of the few teams I expect, who have actually managed a dance out in the last 6 months. It was really helpful to see the positioning and stepping on the video as its sometimes difficult to visualise different positions from the demonstration of one dancer.
“Hazel was well supported by Will Pound on melodeon (great to actually have live music) and Clare Watters doing the warm up and gamely taking over when Hazel lost connection for a short time half way through the session.
“Hazel gave very clear instructions and did very well to get through the whole dance in 1.5 hours – she said it was a simple dance, but some in our side with limited dancing experience did find it challenging to keep up and learn new steps as well as think about the positions and shapes. It was a bit easier when Will played more ‘steadily’ and seeing Hazel from behind also helped the brain sort out left and right hands and feet.
“It’s a lovely dance and great to see that it is so flexible for numbers of dancers – I could see three or five dancers also being able to make interesting shapes and still stay at a distance, as well as a new massed dance for future big events (whenever that might be!)
“Many thanks to Hazel Old, Will Pound and Clare Watters of Chinewrde Morris for teaching us their ‘Lockdown’ dance.
by Rowena Herbert and Rainbow Morris North West team in Saltaire, West Yorkshire
Donations from workshop participants raised over £300 for Chinewrde’s chosen local charity for this year – Zoe’s Place, a Children’s Charity providing palliative, respite and end of life care to babies and infants, with a local hospice in Coventry.
See the video of the ‘Lockdown’ dance by Chinewrde:
You can find the notation for Lockdown here and in The Morris Federation’s Notation Library.
