Young Miscellany
Folk Dance Group exists to encourage our younger generation to enjoy all aspects
of traditional English folk dance.
The group was
formed in 1992 to teach the children from our adult group, English Miscellany,
dances that they could enjoy. Since then the original children have grown
up (many of whom, joined the adult group), and the current group is made up
mostly of children whose parents are not members of English Miscellany, but
are often actively involved in Young Miscellany's activities. The current
group ages are from 7 to 20, and we are always actively encouraging new members
into the group.
We practice in
Harpenden, Hertfordshire (UK) on average two Sunday Mornings a month from
10:30am to 12:30pm. The group is run entirely by volunteers.
Over the years
we have tried to cover as many aspects of English traditional folk dancing
as possible, and our repertoire currently includes:
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The group are
always keen to influence the choice of repertoire and the activities we take
part in, and do so. The aim is to make sure that they feel the group is "theirs",
rather than being just members of a class. As part of this we try to make
up some of our own dances for performance. Hence we have 3 dances of our own
at the moment:-
a North West Morris Dance called Park Hall Polka (named after the hall in
which we practice),
a Handkerchief Dance (deviced entirely by one of our members),
and more recently a Border Morris Dance which is a group effort.
We display throughout
the year, at fetes, old people's homes, museums, festivals and carnivals etc.,
at home and sometimes abroad, and have also displayed for visiting foreign
teams. One of the main events in 2002 was the visit of a young German group
(from Salzkotten), who visited us in July that year to help us celebrate our
10th anniversary year.
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