English Morris Dancers to visit our area

Back row L to R: Fred Ward, Roy Tranter, Ian Appleyard, Steve Rolt, Karen Tranter, Hugh Pannell and Andrew Bishop; Front row L to R: Henry Rolt, Tracy Appleyard, Helen Bishop and William Rolt.

Home Brewed, a group of Morris dancers from the Northeast of England will visit Brasstown and Murphy, N.C., at the invitation of Rural Felicity Garland Dancers and Sticks in the Mud Morris of Brasstown following the U.S. groups' successful tour of England in June 2005.

In addition to sightseeing , the visitors will participate in several public dance performances along with their American hosts. On April 9, the groups will perform at Western Carolina University's 29th annual International Festival. On April 12, the teams will be dancing at various spots around Murphy beginning at 10:30 a.m. on the square downtown. On April 16 there will be a farewell performance at 7 p.m. at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Home Brewed comprises seven dancers and three musicians with two junior dancers joining in from time to time. They perform several types of morris dances, as well as English clog dance. At home in England the members of Home Brewed are also active in other dance groups. Roy and Karen Tranter, Helen and Andrew Bishop and Hugh Pannell dance with Blacksheep Border Morris which is based in the small market town of Barnard Castle in the heart of Teesdale. Dancers Ian Appleyard and Steve Rolt dance with Richmond-on-Swale Morris, a Cotswold Morris group based in the village of Cleasby (pop. ~300) about six miles south of Darlington. Steve's two young sons, Henry and William, are the junior members of the group. Tracy Appleyard, Ian's daughter, is an accomplished English clog dancer who dances with Richmond Castle Clog. Teresa Davies dances with Exeter Morris which is based in Devon on the south coast of England. Fred Ward has visited Brasstown many times and is the primary organizer for this tour. He is one of Home Brewed's musicians (melodeon), but he also plays for Richmond-on-Swale and sometimes for Blacksheep.