Tuesday 13 June 2023

A GREAT START TO THE SUMMER SEASON

 We've had three lovely Monday evenings recently; first, at the Sun Inn, Bassenthwaite Village, next at the Fox & Hounds, Ennerdale, and then last night at the Swinside Inn, in the shadow of some of the most iconic mountains in the northern fells. Fabulous weather too! (Well, perhaps too fabulous, in fact, as the temperatures have been very high for the dancers.)

Above: dancing Mona's Delight at the Sun Inn.
Above: Belfagan Band at the Sun Inn

Above: dancing Wigton at the Swinside Inn
Mona's Delight
Dancing off into the setting sun




Tuesday 2 May 2023

Black Sheep Day of Dance at Barnard Castle, 2023

We've just enjoyed another lovely day out at Barnard Castle surrounded by another 9 morris sides. It wasn't as sunny as usual, but the rain mostly kept off. 

You can find photos of all the other sides on our Flickr page here.

If you were there, and took any photos of Belfagan in action, PLEASE SEND US COPIES! Firstly, email Ally at this address: ally@belfagan.org.uk. Thanks.


Sunday 16 April 2023

READY FOR THE 2023 SUMMER SEASON

May be an image of 9 people, people standing, dirndl and outdoors

 

Here we are, all raring to go, our clogs and bells nicely polished, our kit washed and ironed, and our instruments perfectly in tune! All we need now is some sunshine, and YOU, to come and cheer us on, and maybe even join in with a dance if you're feeling energetic.

Please check our DIARY page to see where to find us. Hope to see  you there!

 

Wednesday 22 December 2021

RESTARTING PRACTICES AFTER THE FESTIVE SEASON

 Assuming we're not prevented by new covid restrictions, we'll be back in Eaglesfield Village Hall to get practising again on Monday January 17th. 

If you fancy having a go at North West morris, we'd love to see you. No experience necessary, and there's no commitment until you've had a chance to see if you enjoy it.

In the meantime, a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year to all our supporters. 

Sunday 5 December 2021

BACK DANCING OUT AT LAST!

 Keswick Victorian Fair December 5th 2021

Well, it's been nearly 2 years since the girls donned their team kit and clogs and danced out in public, but here we are at last, giving it welly at Keswick's Traditional Victorian Fair. We've missed it so much! 

The weather gods were kind: well, at least it was bright and dry, but oh lordy it was cold! We poor musicians suffered numb fingers as we bravely played on.

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Alison Thomson to our ranks. She has recently joined us as a dancer, but having hurt her foot, her first public appearance has been as a musician. She's a mean flautist, and will be useful in both camps as time goes on. Nice to have you with us Alison! (And please note that there is now room for much confusion. New Alison  has ONE L, while longer-established Allison [better known as Ally] had TWO LLs.)

Brian kindly took some photos and videos. You can find the rest of them on Flickr at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/belfagan/albums/72157720208704579

Hope to see some of our fans on New Year's Day, if we can round up enough dancers! Keep an eye on our Diary page for more info.



Wednesday 28 July 2021

Practising again at last!

 


We missed our dancing so much during the dark days of lockdown. It's hard to retain dance-fitness when you're stuck indoors most of the day, and of course we missed seeing each other in real life.


But we've been released back into the wild at last! Who knows how long we'll be out here, but we're doing our best to get fit again, and trying to remember whether we go left or right, up or down or round about. We still can't hold hands or get too close to each other, but at least we can dance, outside in the car park, and gossip, and giggle, and get back to some version of normality.


Our musicians have felt equally lost. What's the point of practising morris tunes when there are no dancers? So some of us have amused ourselves playing other music, while others may just have put the old squeezebox aside for a bit while learning to make sourdough bread, grow prize dahlias, or whatever people were getting up to over the past year.

It's so lovely to play for the girls again! 



We hope the residents of Eaglesfield are enjoying the sound of our practising in the car park. We promise we'll be back inside the hall as soon as it's deemed safe.




Saturday 25 April 2020

Morris dancing, sadly, cancelled

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, all morris events are off this summer.

We are going to miss them so much.

Looking forward to seeing all our friends, fellow morris people, and supporters in 2021.