The Quorn Folk Dance Club

Quorn Demonstration Team

Since the 1970s Quorn Folk Dance Club has run a costumed demonstration team. Comprising equal numbers of men and women, and drawn exclusively from the Club membership, this team currently has a repertoire of over 40 dances from a wide range of traditions which it is happy to show on public and private occasions. The dancing 'season' tends to run from May Day through to Christmas, and includes events both indoor and outdoor. As an example, 1998 has seen the Team give street performance in the centre of Keswick, perform at a National Trust 'Day of Dance' at Sudbury Hall, busk at local pubs, shopping centres and villages, and perform 'cabaret spots' during evening dances. Normally a modest fee is charged for organised performances.

So, what would you see when the Team turns out? For a start the members wear three different costumes. One is a typical 'festival' outfit with the women in colourful felt skirts and the men in breeches and tabards. This is what you might expect to come across at a village fete. Then there is a costume in the Club's colours of black, white and red, which is more suitable for square dancing as well as garland and long sword dancing. Finally there is a more elaborate period costume modelled on Restoration fashions in which are performed the graceful dances from the 17th and 18th centuries.

Dances are presented both singly and in choreographed sequences, and a typical performance will run for perhaps half an hour. The dances themselves are selected so as to show the richness of the English tradition in a variety of rhythms and formations. There would therefore be a mixture of jigs, reels, waltzes, rants, hornpipes and so forth, with names redolent of the English countryside and its traditions, such as: 'Speed the Plough', 'Yorkshire Square Eight', 'The Rifleman', 'Walpole Cottage' and 'Rose of Rochester'. Some dances have mysterious names that are not easily attributable, for example 'Mage on a Cree', 'Argeers' and 'Dargason' leave one guessing about their origins!

Though the Team often performs to recorded music, the preference is always for live music, typically an accordion and a violin. The opportunity is also often taken to bring spectators into some of the simpler dances, especially at the end of a performance, so that the inevitable and infectious foot tapping can find more active expression.

Over the years as many as fifty people have danced in the Team, many of them moving on to clubs in other parts of the country and abroad. Musicians too have moved on as they develop and practice their talents. As part of this process of nurturing enjoyment and skill at folk dancing the Team is currently sponsoring a series of Sunday afternoon 'Family Barn Dances', for all ages, at which gentle instruction is given to those finding their way into these simple pleasures. Out of this it is hoped that a children's performance team may emerge to carry on the tradition.

Since its first performance at a festival in the south of France in 1973, the Quorn Folk Dancers have been on tour twice more to different parts of France, and also to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Austria, as well as to Guernsey. These excursions are a mixture of hard work and holiday which also help to forge the atmosphere which is the lifeblood of all good teams. Over the years friendships with foreign folk clubs has grown out of such visits, and indeed exchanges have taken place. Likewise dances have been both exported and imported through the contacts, enriching the repertoire still further.

If you think you might like to invite Quorn Folk Dancers to one of your events, within reasonable travelling distance of Leicestershire, then by all means call Mike Ward on 01509 672711 or, for general enquiries, contact Mike Bird, the Dance Director, on 01509 412047 or by email.

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