Oxford Folk Festival 2016

Name: Kate

Role: Deputy Squire and E-officer

Joined: 2011

How I joined: I had seen some Morris dancers at a local festival and thought it looked fun and a good distraction from studying for my Masters degree! I contacted Phoenix because at the time they were the closest side to me who would accept women.

Once I started I never looked back! In fact I have since joined 2 other sides

First Dance Out: New Years Day parade in central London. It rained A LOT but we had such an amazing time both in the parade and then afterwards dancing in local pubs.

Favourite Morris memory: Dancing with Phoenix in my wedding dress at our wedding reception. Sue (Foreman) had even written us a special dance, ‘Marriage Lines’ to a tune called ‘haste to the wedding’. Phoenix did an arch of sticks as we left the church and it made our day so special.

Wedding 2018

Favourite Dance: Stomp Hankie

On a hot, sweaty Tuesday evening Phoenix made their way to the 3 horseshoes, Winkwell to dance as guests of Wicket Brood.

A lovely setting with a good size audience, we were able to field 2 sets for each dance despite the relatively small dance space. We were even able to fit everyone in for a performance of Saturday Night.

Some lively, energetic dancing from both sides culminated in a joint Worcestershire Monkey, Brood’s signature dance.

The evening ended with cake in celebration of our Foreman Sue who will be celebrating a ‘big’ birthday this weekend

Last Wednesday was our local dance out at the Coach & Horses on Croxley Green. We had really great attendance at this welcoming pub with a good surface for dancing – definitely one to revisit .
We presented our annual Cheque £400 to the CVSS, the chairman John Bray collected the Cheque and was most grateful for our continued support. He and his wife really enjoyed their evening watching us dance and socializing with us all.

We also had some passing girl guides join us on mass with their team leaders. The kids enjoyed joining in Molly Oxford – it made their evening!

After dancing The pub kindly issued us with vast quantities of hot buffet food at no cost which was very welcoming !

All in all one of our more successful Wednesday night dance outs !

We’ve been so busy recently that we have a bit of a bloggers backlog! (Not as unpleasant as it sounds!)

Back at the beginning of July, Phoenix were lucky enough to be invited on another weekend of dance hosted by the lovely Rose & Castle and Queens Oak Morris sides. As ever it was a fantastic event complete with camping, food and an evening ceilidh. Despite the heat we danced our socks off and had a great time.

The weekend was closely followed by St Michael’s evening in St Albans the following Wednesday. As always it was a chaotic cacophony of Morris down the street – great fun!

Last weekend, Phoenix hosted our own day of dance at the 6th annual Rickmansworth Folk Festival. We were joined by our friends Whitethorn Morris, Merrydowners Morris and Wicket Brood for a number of spots around town, culminating in a mass Poppleton stick with Merrydowners and a mass Worcester monkey with Wicket Brood (And one member of Whitethorn). The dancing was of course followed by tea and cake for everyone.

The day was a big success and we want to thank our guest sides for coming along and putting on such a great show.

Finally, on Sunday we attended an event at Rickmansworth Masonic school. Another lovely afternoon!

Despite fear of rain, Phoenix Morris enjoyed a lovely evening of dancing at the Black Horse Inn in Chesham as guests of our friends Whitethorn Morris.Due to our Foreman, Sue, being lent to the musicians for the evening, deputy Foreman, Karen, and Deputy Squire, Kate, stepped in to drive the dances. The calls were mostly correct but at times a little more ‘creative’ than usual!Whitethorn were in their usual excellent form and a great time was had by all. A lovely location, good company and energetic dancing all round.