Are Belles and Broomsticks Morris in Guernsey the first morris side to dance out this season without having to social distance or follow any other restrictions?
They gave us this report, the full details of which will be in the next ‘Isolation Edition’ of the FedExtra magazine.
“Unlucky for some, but taking advantage of the fine weather, we decided that Monday 13th July 2020 would be our first dance-out of this year’s season.
We decided to dance two ‘sets’ at two venues.
The first one at the Driftwood Hotel at Perelle, who now has the distinction of being the first place this season in the UK to host unrestricted Morris dancing. We had a small but appreciative audience and danced a set of five dances. One of which, appropriately, was Le Catioroc, a ‘round’ dance referencing the legend of the Witches dancing around Le Trepied dolmen on the Catioroc headland south side of Perelle. This is a dance of our own devising in the Ducklington tradition which we have renamed the ‘Canard-lington’ tradition.
Our second venue was at the Hotel Fleur du Jardin. Here again, we entertained the outside diners with six stick or hanky dances of various traditions. The Fleur now has the distinction of being the first place to host us performing our own Liberation Day lock-down jig ‘To Town on a Pushang’ (*) in the Canard-lington tradition:
A ‘Pushang’ is our local name for a bicycle. Liberation Day on 9th May celebrates the end of five years of Nazi occupation of the islands. Everyone went to town to greet the British liberating forces.”