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Redbornstoke Morris Dance Traditions

From the start Redbornstoke Morris have danced in the Cotswold traditions. In the late 1970s, we concentrated on Bledington, but included others, such as Badby.  Ducklington became our main tradition from 1986, along with the Ampthill tradition, which we started to develop from around 1983. We also included the Upton-upon-Severn handkerchief dance, which is still with us. (There are just two dances from Upton-upon-Severn, the handkerchief dance and the stick dance).

 

From Ducklington we changed to Bampton and then back to Bledington along with an expanded Ampthill.  Prior to changing from Ducklington, we recorded videos of the side dancing Ducklington dances  as an exercise to capture Redbornstoke Morris' Ducklington Dances for our archive  You can see these videos here.

Since the early 1990's we have concentrated on our own traditions, expanding the Ampthill, repertoire. December 1998 saw the world premiere of the Marston tradition, danced in black kit for the winter months.  By the early in the 2000’s Bledington had been displaced by the local Scouthall tradition, which continues to be developed.  These home grown traditions also use a number of homegrown tunes written by Barry Goodman, Brian Mander, Martin Banks, and Taz Tarry. 

The three own-traditions were Ampthill, Scouthall (pronounced “Sc’ut’all” to sound like “Scuttle”), and a winter tradition, Marston.  At the time of the side's retirement, the dances in each tradition being danced are given below. Follow the links in the dance tradition headers above for more information on each of these traditions, including origin of the dances, dance notation, videos, tune notations and tune recordings.

 

Ampthill: Alameda Walk (processional); Bedfordshire Clanger; Billy Bones; Finest (of them all); Hunt the Bunny; Ibsen's Reel; Meg's First Kiss, Middles Revenge; Motley Cap; Noddersway; One Mans Morris; Pilgrim; Rik's Finger (Three man stick); Sluts End; Snuffing the Candles; Three man hankie; XO

Scouthall: Blue-Eyed Stranger; Dance It Away up the Street; Forty Years On; Juniper Hill (The Column Dance); Lovely Nancy; The Month of May; Old Slapper; Scouting for Boys; Shepherds Hey; Whitstable Hot Spot

Marston: Andrew's Oblivion; Boney Bill; Brickers' Ganger;  Cardington Hanger; Cheltenham Cold Spot;  John's Bunion; Marston Processional; Marston Thrift; Meg's First Kiss; Ms Ashby's Request; Silken Chains; Sodexho; Swaying Nods

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