Let's Dance
When Music & Movement Meet
Let's Dance is a feature looking at the cusp where folk meets dance in it's many different forms, ceilidh, morris, barn dance, ballet etc. There is a question over what came first dance or music we really don't mind, we do know that where the two come together, fun ensues.
The FATEA Four Hand Reel - A 'New' Ceilidh Dance
On Sunday 18th August 2024, at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, a previously unheard-of ceilidh dance was performed for the first time by hundreds of enthusiastic festival goers. Threepenny Bit, together with caller Andrew Helson, took the dancers through this wonderfully original Dorset 'Drinking' Dance.
Little is known of the dance's origins. Handwritten notes suggest it came about in 13:30 (just after lunch) and was first collected by famed Dorset musician Reverend Theodore Wolfwhistel (a master of the Jingling Johnny!) in 1989. The name of the dance was illegible, so it is thought that he named it after a new magazine he'd picked up that winter.
Although a 'reel' by name, it is traditionally danced to a 48 bar jig - tankard in hand! The dance contains such imaginative moves as the 'Chink and Drink', the 'Right Tankard Turn' and the 'Charge of the Bar Brigade' - the dance traditionally ended with the dancers, now with empty tankard in hand, galloping off to the bar! In true festival style, the dance is testament to the creativity and friendship forged between strangers when immersed in the sounds of one of Dorset's finest folk festivals.
For enthusiastic callers, musicians, dancers and drinkers, the full dance is as follows:
Fatea Four Hand Reel - 48 bar jigs
Danced in pairs - couple facing couple - tankard in hand
A1: Chink and Drink - advance and chink tankards, retire and drink (repeat twice)
A2: Right Tankard Turn - tankards in the right hand, join tankard with your opposite and turn all the way round and back to places - complete the move by giving left hands to your partner and turning all the way round and back to places
B1: Circles - join hands/tankards and circle left then right
B2: Stars - join tankards in the middle of the set and complete a right hand/tankard star - return with a left-hand star (raise your tankard to toast other dancers you pass on the way back)
C: Charge of the Bar Brigade - toast with your partner then charge off to find another pair*
*when the caller calls, "1 more time", instead charge off to the bar to refill your tankard.
Note for callers, The FATEA Four Hand Reel is traditionally performed before a refreshment break in a ceilidh or at the end, allowing for enough time before last orders, woebetide anyone still dancing at the bell
More photos of this dance being performed can be found here and then going right
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