Darlington
Mummers are a revivalist team but with our own tradition of some 40
years of presenting Mummers Plays at Folk Clubs and Festivals; indeed
for many earlier years simply appearing out of the blue in local pubs.
Our stalwart play was long the Pace Egg from Lancaster but for many
years now we have also performed a Wooing Play, a Souling Play and plays
from as far as Netley Abbey, Hampshire and as near as Haughton le Skerne.
We have also a fine Tup and an Old 'Oss custom. Whilst ever light hearted
we are careful never to turn the traditional play into a pantomime.
Rainbow
Morris
Rainbow
Morris is a dancing team based in the World Heritage Site village of
Saltaire in West Yorkshire. We have been dancing since 1990. (Yes that's
20 years ).
Our dances are in the North West tradition, named after the towns and
villages of the north west of England where they originated. We dance
with clogs, bells, garlands and hankies, and our 'sticks' were used
in Salts Mill for weaving cloth.
Buttercross Belles
Buttercross
Belles are a women's Morris team (or side) who dance mainly in a lively
North West style. Team members wear tap shoes (as opposed to clogs)
with a distinctive kit comprising a white short-sleeved dress over which
is a green smock trimmed with purple. A decorated straw hat completes
the picture.
The name ‘The Buttercross Belles’ comes from the ‘Buttercross’,
a roofed open structure which stands next to the Clock Tower in Otley
Market Square. The Buttercross was used by farmers selling their farm
products at market in times past.
Perree
Bane Manx Folk Group
Perree
Bane
were a great addition to Furness Tradition a few years ago and now return
by popular demand as friends and brilliant expnents of a very special
tradition. The group was formed in 1981 to promote Manx traditional
music and dance and takes it's name from the white collarless jacket
worn by the men. Most of the dances are traditional, danced to traditional
tunes, but the Group has composed new dances in the Manx idiom.
The Group is well-known at Festivals around the Celtic world and have
danced further afield in Germany and Spain.
Flag
and Bone Gang
There have been many exciting developments during the
more recent years of the morris dance revival, no doubt driven by a
number of differing desires: to retain the best of traditional practise
to find and revive a tradition belonging to the locality of the team
to innovate and develop, providing "new recipes but using the traditional
ingredients" to raise the standards of dancing, musicianship and
the performance as a whole to be different.
Flag
and Bone Gang are just this - a dance side reviving and developing the
traditons of their native East Yorkshire. They have been to Furness
Tradition before and thus can say on past experience - don't miss this!!!
England's
Glory were
formed in 1972, first dancing out in 1973 and are therefore one of the longest
established ladies morris sides in the world! Highlights of our 35 years
of continuous dancing have included being the very first ladies side ever
to appear at Sidmouth International Folk Festival. We were also the first
ladies morris side to appear on television (Pebble Mill at One) and we have
toured overseas - Sweden, Guernsey, and Finland, as well as becoming a permanent
fixture at many of the major UK Folk Festivals.
We are named after the historic brand of matches manufactured in Gloucester for about 100 years by the Moreland family. The matches in turn were named after a French ship of advanced design, La Gloire, which accounts for the ladies costume of Edwardian sailor suits in the French national colours of blue, white, and red.
Leap
To Your Feet
Appalachian Dancers and Musicians from Bolton perform the traditional dance
and music of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of America - also known
as Appalachian Clogging.The dances incorporate the various traditions of
several European and African Countries. The dancers wear “tap”
shoes to add a percussive sound to the music. Appalachian Dancing evolved
from the “Clog” dancing common in England And Ireland and taken
to the Appalachian mountains of America by the early settlers. The group
have progressed from performing at school fetes and small venues to shows
at the Lowry Theatre in Salford, The Albert Halls in Bolton and on TV in
the BBC2 show “Let Me Entertain You” with Brian Conley.