We're a mixed cotswold morris side who practice near Stokenchurch, Buckinghamshire, UK, but dance all over England. We perform hankie dances from the Raglan tradition and stick dances of our own Rockhopper tradition. Many of our members are also active members of other sides.
We evolved as a group of morris dancing friends that performed for an event when a 'regular' side couldn't be persuaded to appear. The members of this ad-hoc team enjoyed ourselves so much that they decided to carry on as a proper side.
This has to do with some of the things that happened during our winter frolics. You could ask a side member in person but there's no guarantee of a sensible answer unless you ply them with food or alcohol or both.
Saturday 11th February 2012, Cheltenham Folk Festival
Friday 24th February, Unicorn Ceilidh, Town Hall, Hitchin
Saturday 5th May, Mr Hemmings Traditional Morris Day of Dance (Abingdon, Oxfordshire)
Tuesday 15th May: at The Peyton Arms, Stoke Lyne OX27 8SD as guests of Kirtlington Morris
Sunday 20th May: at the Brighton Morris Men Day of Dance
Monday 21st May: at the Rock of Gibraltar, Bletchingdon OX5 3AY as guests of Mason's Apron
Saturday 27th May: at the Kirtlington Lamb Ale
Saturday & Sunday 16th & 17th June: at the The Fleece Inn, Bretforton WR11 7JE
Rockhopper penguins have feathers. They are predominantly black & white with pink feet & orange beak, red eyes and some whispy yellow feathers on either side of their head.
They are small and agressive & will probably chase you if you get close to their nests. It takes 8 rockhopper penguins to make a gallon of oil.
Rockhopper penguins can be seen hopping around on rocks, regurgitating krill & chasing wildlife photographers.
Pictures of Rockhopper penguinsWe wear white collarless shirts & white trousers or jeans with black belt, socks & trainers. We have armbands with ribbons of black, yellow & orange. On the left breast pocket is a stylised penguin. Finally we have bright orange hankies which is probably what you'll notice first. Our eyes are only red after a night on the booze.
Our sizes vary but we're very friendly. We like to get oiled on beer, cider or gin.
We can be seen at some festivals and morris tours and many members sport penguin trophies in pockets, attached to ears or worn on heads. We're not bashfull and don't mind having our picture taken.
Our members are experienced dancers and musicians all of whom have lives in other morris sides. Although initially we danced anything that we could all quickly learn to perform, we found we needed more of a challenge, so we persuaded Nick Walden and Darrell Hurtt from Hammersmith Morris to teach us the unusual modern tradition of Raglan with its unique triple-step.
Learning such an unique tradition made the rest of our existing broad and eclectic reptoire seem tame, and decided to drop our other dances. We supplemented the documented Raglan dances with several of our own devising.
Recently we've developed our own stick dances, using the same Raglan stepping. So far we've danced "Scottish Diamond", "Golden Triangle" and "Skirmish" out in public.