Dancers will take to the floor at Royal Welsh Festival
Visitors to this year’s Royal Welsh Smallholder and Garden Festival with a spring in their step will be able to join in a Festival of Dance at the event. The theme will be Celtic Dance with dancers from Scottish, Irish, Cornish, Welsh and Breton traditions. Other disciplines are not excluded, however, and there will be teams of Morris, Cloggers, Playford and Armenian dancers.
The programme, say the organisers, is designed to appeal to all whether they want simply to be part of the audience or just cannot resist having a go. They will be welcome to join in and there will be a variety of workshops for those who would like to try their skills and also a Scottish dance and a ceilidh on the Saturday night of the weekend festival which takes place on May 17 and 18 on the Royal Welsh showground at Llanelwedd, Builth Wells.
Gwenda Dinsdale of Celtic Links based in Builth Wells will lead a Scottish dance workshop suitable for beginners and improvers. From Scotland a demonstration team Thornhill, accompanied by a band and pipers, will entertain with superb dance displays. Their leader, Sinclair Barbour, will teach an advanced Scottish country dance class and those dancers familiar with this type of dancing will be able to enjoy the Saturday evening dance led by the Thornhill Scottish Country Dance Band.
The Cornish dance will be represented by Rob Hogg and his group Hevva, while Breffni O’Brien, with the Caledonian Set Dance Club, will give displays of Irish set dances and will also lead a workshop.
Nancy Warren, from Bredwardine, is an exponent of Armenian folkdancing, and Morris and Clogg dancing will be the prerogative of the Forest of Dean Morris Men. A ladies team, the Wimberry Cloggers, will perform clogg dancing, and Something Afoot from Rhayader, will present Welsh clogging.
Annett Davies, from Aberystwyth, will hold a workshop for those interested in Breton and French dancing and Richard Mason of Firestone, one of whose specialities is Appalachian clogg dancing, will hold workshops and ‘call’ at a ceilidh on Saturday night. There is no need to know anything about ceilidh dances as Richard and friends will teach dances and call so that all who attend can enjoy themselves.
Some of the display teams will dance at various venues on the showground at Llanelwedd while, on Saturday afternoon, all the demonstration teams will perform in the Bandstand, giving visitors an opportunity to relax in the sunshine and enjoy the free entertainment.
The Festival programme provides a wide variety of folk dances and all are welcome to enjoy this new feature of the Festival weekend either by watching or taking part.