On Saturday afternoon Rhys and Michelle at The Bell were delighted that we were able to display the full range of Adderbury Village Morris dances outside the pub to help draw attention to their excellent Festival of Winter Ales. With two musicians and eight experienced dancers, we entertained a decent crowd on a cold afternoon and drew in many keen volunteers for our crowd participation dance. I counted 20 dancers, at the end of which only Isabel and Donald, our long suffering musicians were still feeling chilled. After we completed our set of dancing with the obligatory Brighton Camp, we were able to retire to a packed and very warm pub, where some of us were able to sample an eclectic range of seasonal ales from local breweries, including Hook Norton’s Twelve Days. Thanks again to all Saturday’s dancers who produced some very impressive and accurate dancing. Special mention, however, must go to Hector and Dylan. One of our senior dancers commented that they both seem to have grown about a foot over the past year and the quality of their capering, like their height, has increased significantly.

On Sunday morning at Hornton Parish Church we were asked to perform in a very different environment viz. to present Donald’s powerful Story of the Dancer as the central part of a church service. Once again, we were able to field eight dancers, although only three of these had performed on the day before. This team were thus less experienced overall than Saturday’s side. Indeed three of them had never previously appeared in this powerful story of dancers drawn into the tragic events of World War 1. Since the performance required us to dance some of our less frequently performed numbers such as Happy Man and The Buffoon, Squire Ryan had to marshal his troops with his customary wisdom. In addition the very narrow aisle of this tiny church created challenges for all the dancers, particularly in performing Heys. The congregation were unanimous in their praise afterwards and the vicar asked us if we would consider repeating the show at one of the larger churches in the benefice next year, to which the answer was, of course, affirmative. As I left the still packed church, Donald was fielding questions about the various sources for his wonderful story, Ryan was attempting to teach an enthusiastic parishioner the rudiments of Shepherd’s Hey and the rest of the side and our supporters were enjoying coffee and biscuits.