Chinewrde Morris Information

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Chinewrde Morris
Information Page

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The Chinewrde Style
The North West Clog Morris tradition was and is strong in the Mill Towns of Lancashire and Cheshire. Traditionally danced by the female mill-workers, the working clogs and bobbins form part of the style of dance. Refer to the Photos page for an idea of the kit worn. In times gone by, women left work when they married, so the workers and hence dancers would have been largely the unmarried, or younger women. Clearly therefore, an energetic high stepping style of dance is the essence of North West Morris, and whilst Time cannot be Stood Still, the dancers of Chinewrde effect the vigour and drive of the dances' origins. Dance is about performance and audience - hence Chinewrde Morris is not merely a keep-fit club, but dance out whenever possible between April and September; with the winter period (with one or two exceptional dance-outs) used for tuition and practice so that audiences actively seek them out to watch when they do perform. With a large number of dancers in the membership, typically over 20, close friendships are formed and these both heighten the performances through mutual support as well as ensuring a warm welcome will be found within the ranks for all would-be recruits.

The Chinewrde Style

The North West Clog Morris tradition was and is strong in the Mill Towns of Lancashire and Cheshire. Traditionally danced by the female mill-workers, the working clogs and bobbins form part of the style of dance. Refer to the Photos page for an idea of the kit worn.

In times gone by, women left work when they married, so the workers and hence dancers would have been largely the unmarried, or younger women. Clearly therefore, an energetic high stepping style of dance is the essence of North West Morris, and whilst Time cannot be Stood Still, the dancers of Chinewrde effect the vigour and drive of the dances' origins.

Dance is about performance and audience - hence Chinewrde Morris is not merely a keep-fit club, but dance out whenever possible between April and September; with the winter period (with one or two exceptional dance-outs) used for tuition and practice so that audiences actively seek them out to watch when they do perform.

With a large number of dancers in the membership, typically over 20, close friendships are formed and these both heighten the performances through mutual support as well as ensuring a warm welcome will be found within the ranks for all would-be recruits.

Recruiting

Potential new dancers and musicians are warmly welcomed. The minimum age for dancing out is 16. We don’t have an upper age limit - so long as you match our acclaimed style of energetic and precise dancing!

We practice in Kenilworth on Wednesday evenings, 8-10pm. If you’re interested in joining us please email Jan] or Linda for more details and to arrange to come along to a practice

Bookings / Invites

Yes Please!!
We do like being asked to come and perform either for your local event, or at your Morris get-together.
Please contact us (details on our Contacts page) with as much information as you have to hand. Sooner, rather than later-with-final-details is much better as it gives us a chance to ask around the group and ensure we understand the availability or otherwise of sufficient people to enable us to give you a firm response (this takes between 2 and 4 weeks, unless urgent).
Weekends away are very much the order of the day, giving the chance to meet up with other Morris Sides and show our tremenjous social side and drinking ability (in a ladylike genteel way, of course).
Local events in and around Warwickshire (often charity-related) figure in the calendar every year - but sometimes organisers give us short notice and if already booked elsewhere we are sorry to disappoint.
In this litiginous age, performers like Chinewrde are covered by public liability insurance to prove peace of mind - and should the untoward happen, we can even supply a personal injuries solicitor or two from amongst the ranks !!

Leaflet

We periodically update our free leaflet of information to hand-out to interested parties.
This is a double-sided single sheet of A4 paper, which can be folded as shown below to pocket size.

The Chinewrde Leaflet is in PDF format, for which you may need the freely available reader:

Page Created: 1 Feb 2001
Page Last Modified: 24 Mar 2012