FedExtra Issues

Three pages with colour pictures and a short article are given to the JMO Day of Dance in Exeter, also one of the venues for Damien Barber’s Lock In, with many local teams dancing in the city before the show. Franken’s Nights in Devon, and the Winkleigh Morris weekend of dance, Roy Dommett’s ‘last’ Farnham workshop, Hadrian Wall Dancing, Whitby Shindigs, strange goings-on in Conwy Castle, plus much more, including foreign trips, anniversaries and May Day celebrations.

If you are having problems sourcing durable sticks (we all know broomsticks are useless!) then there’s some valuable advice. The Antipodes are well represented in this issue, with an account of a visit down under by a couple of Beetlecrushers, and an initiation into Molly Dancing by a City of Auckland Dancer. Everybody involved in Longsword will be aware of the priceless contribution to the preservation and promotion of the tradition by the late Ivor Allsop.

The young ladies of Maltby Phoenix Rapper that take pride of place on the cover, plus a good variety of material in the articles submitted, including work being done to encourage young people to dance.

More Olympics photos and news, plus a Joint Morris Organisation initiative to present a large cheque for Children in Need, with (hopefully) all of this country’s morris sides making a contribution.

A few early photographs of the passing of the Olympic flame, a couple of specially composed dances, two articles about morris costume, as well as Paul White’s regular column. Dodge the showers and enjoy your Summer’s dancing.

If some clubs seem to feature regularly in Newsletter articles while other clubs never appear it is largely down to the efficiency or otherwise of the club’s publicity officer. I make a selection for publication basically from what I receive – in practice almost all submissions get published. So, if there is something of general interest in which your side is involved, please let me have some pics and an article.

What is it, I wonder, that impels intelligent people to to forego the warmth and comfort of a fireside armchair to dance on a windswept pub forecourt in the depths of winter? Last year I battled through snow and ice to maintain our Boxing Day dancing ‘tradition’ at our favourite rural pub. No such problem this year, but with family commitments and so on reducing available numbers to single figures I was expecting a fairly low-key event. Well, my spirits were uplifted way beyond all expectations. Though small in number gave a full and enjoyable performance to an appreciative audience. I wouldn’t have given a thought of swapping it for my armchair by the fire!

In this issue there is an added bonus – two extra pages containing Paul White’s column (arrived too late for printed edition) and some extra photographs. Another advantage of the on-line magazine is that all the photographs are in colour, rather than just the cover and possibly inside centre pages. So, all of you who are happy to access the on-line Newsletter, please tell all your colleagues how to find it and extol its advantages!

Once again the morris welcomes in the May with dancing at remote and unpopulated locations at an ungodly hour for those who really like to get into the spirit of things, or to the masses at festivals, fetes and such like. Some sides have already travelled to foreign parts, and many are planning to do so during the summer. Apart from these, and other regular features, the Summer Newsletter includes ideas on recruitment and training, the place of traditional dance in fiction, and much more!

Mummers and wassailers didn’t let the weather curb their customary appearance over the festive season, the Cheltenham Folk Festival in February brought morris dancers out on the streets again, there’s a new side in Adderbury to look forward to at the village day of dance in April, and Great Western have persuaded Roy Dommett to come out of retirement to lead a workshop in Exeter.