Rockhopper Morris
Please bookmark our new address https://rockhopper.halfgip.com
Who Are We?
We're a mixed Cotswold morris side who practise 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.
History
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.
Why Rockhopper?
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.
Where To See Us
One Event We Did Get to Dance in 2021
Unicorn Ceilidh
St Mary's Church Hall, Baldock SG7 5AE
12th November 2021
Where We're Hopping to Dance in 2022
Folk Weekend Oxford
Sun 24th April
West Berkshire Brewery with
Old Speckled Hen
Thu 5th May
Chippenham Folk Weekend
Sat 28th May
Windsor Morris Home Tour
Sat 21st May
Queen's Platunium Jubilee Celebrations at
Studley Community Centre
Sunday 5th June at 2pm
Queen's Platunium Jubilee Celebrations at the
Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway
Sunday 5th June at 2:50pm
Kirtlington Lamb Ale
12th June
All Thing Morris Weekend
Ilfracombe
9th - 10th July
Sidmouth Folk Week
30th - 31st July
Wallingford Bunkfest
3rd - 4th September
Swanage Folk Festival
11th - 12th September
We're planning more events...
How To Spot Us
How To Spot a Rockhopper (Penguin)
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 penguinsHow To Spot a Rockhopper (Morris Dancer)
We 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.
Pictures of Rockhopper MorrisOur Dances
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.
After learning such an interesting tradition we decided to drop our other dances to focus more on the new material. We supplemented the basic Raglan hankie dances with several new ones that we developed and then created our own stick dance tradition which uses the Raglan triple-step. These latter dances are all performed to tunes with a 3/2 or 9/8 rhythm which fits them very well.
Contact
- Secretary: Kathy Parkinson email: rockhoppermorris@gmail.com