This month, like most other Morris sides around the country, New Moon Morris will be offering free trial sessions for dancers and musicians. For some Morris sides autumn is the only time of year that it is possible to join, because they are dancing out for the whole of the Summer. At New Moon we take new members at any time of year, but that can mean that someone joining in March or April will find it difficult when we are dancing out over the spring and summer, because they won’t have had the chance to do enough practice to learn many of the dances.
The ideal time is in September, or soon afterwards, that way the dancer will have the whole of the autumn and winter to learn our dances. It does take a number of repetitions to learn a dance so that you feel confident to be able to dance it out in public. It is harder to dance in public than in the practice hall, so we do practice until our dancers feel confident to give it a go with an audience.
What makes September a good time to start Morris dancing?
It isn’t just that the new dancer will have more time to learn the dances before we start the ‘dancing out’ season in the spring. Autumn is a great time to start any new hobby. Did you know that you are much more likely to succeed at a new venture if you start it at a ‘significant’ time? We all know about starting new things at New Year, but people who start a diet, or going to the gym, or learning anything new, are more likely to succeed if they start at the beginning of a new month, or some date that is significant to them. Even starting your new regime on a Monday means that you have a greater chance of success than if you start on another day of the week.
Everyone knows about new beginnings at school in September – new academic courses are geared up to start afresh then. If your kids are starting something new, then you also are more prepared to begin something new, and succeed at it.
New Moon Morris does welcome new members at any time, but in September we focus on beginners. We put aside any other practice, and focus on helping new people to learn the dances.
Are you a bit nervous?
Perhaps you’ve seen Morris dancing, and thought that it looks like fun, but you are not sure about what to expect, or maybe you are a bit nervous about going and trying it – what if you make a mistake? What are the people like? Will you find yourself in the corner and not knowing what to do?
Well, the first thing is that giving Morris dancing a try won’t cost you anything, you have a number of weeks to give it a go before you need to decide whether it’s the right thing for you. We won’t put any pressure on you, you get to decide in your own time whether you could be a member of New Moon Morris. Our members are a very friendly bunch – we pride ourselves on making new people feel included from the moment that they walk into the practice hall. Some of our members have said that they went home ‘buzzing’ at the end of their first session – that’s how we want to make everyone feel.
Tell me about New Moon Morris
There are a number of styles of Morris dancing from different areas of the country, perhaps the most recognisable one is Cotswold’s Morris. New Moon started as a North West side – a style which developed in the factory and cotton towns of Lancashire – and is a type of clog dancing. However, these days we choose as a ‘side’ what dances we want to do, and we have dances from three traditions: North West Clog, Cotswolds and Border. Some of our dances have been developed by members of the side.
We ‘dance out’ a lot in the spring and summer; everywhere from local pubs to big festivals, local museums, and private events such as weddings. But, we don’t dance only in summer – we have our own Wassail tour of Tring in January, and our hilltop dancing for May Day sunrise, SunDown at the end of October and the Midwinter Sunrise.
We are a mixed ‘side’, and we encourage our members to learn new skills. If you are a dancer, perhaps you’d like to learn an instrument? Perhaps as a musician you’d like to give dancing a try?
What do you need to do if you are thinking of trying Morris dancing with New Moon?
It helps if you let us know if you are planning on coming along – you can send us a message on our FB page, or email the Squire through the Contact page on this website. That way we will know your name in advance, but you can just turn up at practice. Dancers need no previous experience, and you don’t need to be super fit, but obviously, dancing is a physical activity so you will need sensible footwear and to wear comfortable clothing. Musicians may wish to send a message first to find out what tunes we are likely to be playing at practice. Perhaps you are not sure if your instrument is suitable for Morris? We’ve had a wide variety of instruments in the band at various times, including flute, clarinet and cornet – we like to produce a ‘big sound’ – so we are pretty flexible, but if you are not sure, send us a message.
We practice from 20:15 to 22:15 on Tuesday evenings at Ivinghoe Town Hall (LU7 9EP), with a short break for tea/coffee and cake in the middle. Our trial sessions are Tuesday 17th and 24th September this year (2024). You are very welcome to come along and give it a go.