Quentin Tarantino would have been (almost) proud. It all started with a secret photo-shoot in a highly cool location, involved a sharply dressed young rap star, gorgeous musical divas and……..two Morris Dancers……oh well, perhaps you can’t have everything (George Clooney for example)……or maybe you can?

The truth is we were delighted and very honoured to be asked to perform for the second Big Busk to be held in Shrewsbury town centre on Sat 5th April 2014.

We jumped at the invitation to be a small part of the amazing group of, musicians, singers, dancers, drummers, magicians, animal experts, yoga…erm…practitioners, poets, readers, spoon players and street artistes who turned out in huge numbers to support the worthy cause of The Shrewsbury Ark.

It being our first dance-out of the new 2014 season we were very excited to be able to include three new men (Mike, Richard and a new Tom) in the ranks of The Bull and Pump Morris Men. The new ladies who have joined the Shrewsbury Lasses are working hard at practice and are just waiting for their kit before they join us dancing in public too, which is also very exciting.

Photo courtesy of Simon Jones

We were allocated two 20 minute spots in The Square and Pride Hill which were ideal for “blooding” (or should that be sticking?) our new dancers. Large crowds gathered to watch both performances and we were delighted to find that lots of people engaged with us and came to chat before, during and after the dances. We love that!

Apart from a tumble, a wardrobe malfunction and a Mexican stand-off with a group of mediaeval re-enactors (in the nicest possible way….we took their photos and they stood down) the afternoon was terrific and we were pleased to maintain the high standard of all of the some 90 acts who performed throughout the day.

The dancing and clogging was great, the musicians as always were superb, the team-work was brilliant and our new members were absolutely fabulous! It was sad that one or two of our regular team were injured and could not take part but some joined us anyway, which was lovely and we hope they will all be back dancing with us very soon.

A great start to 2014, after which a tired but very happy Shrewsbury Morris piled into a Winnebago and headed off into the Mexican sunset….well…..all points Shrewsbury anyway…….and not a vampire in sight!

Shrewsbury Morris are sponsored by the wonderful (and local) Pipekit and Battlefield Printing Company.

Our programme thus far for 2014 has now been published – you can see it here

Do come along and see us!

After a brief dance hiatus and a much needed practice this Thursday at The Red Barn in Longden (for which a huge thank you to Theresa) we’re back with a bang this weekend as we join many great sides for a weekend of brilliant music, fun, dance and probably, sore heads as The Shrewsbury Folk Festival swings into action once more. From our point of view we are really looking forward to it as it’s been quite a while since Shrewsbury Morris have danced there so it’s great for us to be at our own Festival again. Do come up and say hello to us if you see us about.

We’re dancing on the country stage at 11am with our friends from Ironbridge the superb Ironmen Severn Gilders Morris. From there we travel into town to St Alkmonds for a lunchtime dance spot (12.15 to 1pm) with the brilliant Seven Champions Morris before returning to the Showground to finish the day dancing with Noa’s Danish Chilts and JD and Folk (what great names Morris sides have!!)

Other Morris sides will be all over the town on Saturday and Sunday too, at The Castle, St Mary’s Church, St Alkmonds and The Square so do go and have a look at them and enjoy what they do.

The following Thursday evening (Aug 29th) we renew our acquaintance with Bridgnorth when we meet up with other local dancing buddies Bedcote Morris to dance at the very picturesque and unique Severn Valley Railway which we are really pleased about.

Then a very busy period ensues for us as we dance at The Flaxmill in town from 1130am on Sunday 8th September and then travel out later that same day to the lovely little village of Shrawardine, near Montford to join in the celebrations of the village church’s 800th anniversary from 2pm onwards.

That will be followed by our high point of the year. You’ll read about it in the local papers soon but we believe some 400 Morris Dancers are going to invade Shrewsbury (in a good way) on Sat 28th September to celebrate this glorious tradition with us as we host the Morris Federation Day of Dance. It’s going to be a superb day for Shrewsbury and for us as the town and The Quarry will be filled with colour, fabulous music, some pretty strange sights and most importantly wonderful dancing from 10am – 4pm.

The team has been working towards this for nearly a year now and we recommend that if you want to see and hear something truly unique, traditional and just plain gorgeous then come to Shrewsbury that day and join with us in a fantastic celebration of Morris.

In addition, we and (hopefully) some other teams will be dancing at the Battlefield1403 site on the morning of Sunday 29th September to blow away the cobwebs of the night before! As well as kindly hosting us they have their Harvest and Heritage food festival the same weekend so, even more reason to come out and watch us all.

Finally, here’s an early invitation to all local men and women to our “come and have a go” open evenings on Thursdays 10th and 17th October at Sundorne School from 8pm until 10pm. Come and join us for some fun, drinks and nibbles, see what we do, chat to the team and have a go with the bells, sticks and hankies. Who knows, you might like it so much you join us – lots of people came last time and we acquired quite a few new members who are doing really well and (we think) really enjoying the great dance, music, friendship, fun, fitness and well-being that this amazing traditional activity gives us. More about this event as time goes on.

In the meantime, why not follow us on Twitter @shrewsmorris (well over 6,000 people already do) on Facebook or via our website www.shrewsburymorris.co.uk