Events

Heartwood has just returned from a ten day tour of merrie olde England, where we danced out with lots of local sides and attended two weekend ales. A total of eight dancers/musicians made the trip along with one “roadie” (the price of being married to a Morris person). Some highlights of the trip:

Sompting Village Morris Monster Ale

The Sompting Village Ale was a massive undertaking with over 30 sides and 460 dancers converging on the seaside town of Worthing. Highlights of the weekend include the Saturday night pantomime at which the Heartwoodies did a New York wiseguy take on the classic mummers play, and the “all hands” dance around the Worthing pier ending up with two long lines of dancers along the seashore walk.

Dancing up and down the Midlands

The next day after the Ale, we travelled up to St. Albans to watch the St. Albans Morris Men do their Cotswold dances at two different pubs. We then thanked them with a quick turn of our own in the street.

One of the members of the Wicket Brood Border side had arranged the rest of the week for us, including home hospitality with various side members. Kudos to Jenny Newsom, and a big thank you!

It was back to St. Albans on Tuesday to dance out with Wicket Brood and Baldock Midnight Morris at a very old pub called Ye Olde Fighting Cocks. Here are some photos from the pub and of the dancing. Thanks to Susan Bell of Wicket Brood and the Loose Women Morris for the photos!

The rest of the week was filled with dancing in Windsor with Borderline, Windsor Morris & Taeppas Tump on Wednesday, and a delightful evening dancing in the road at a country pub in Dundridge with Red Stags Morris and friends.

Foxtrot at Tutbury Castle

We ended the week at the Foxtrot, a dance event held at Tutbury Castle that featured a dozen or so sides dancing in the town of Lichfield and in and around the castle ruins. Some pictures:

A great time was had by all!