London on Sunday

A rare day off on Sunday - to the Tate Modern, where we saw the Gauguin exhibition and then to an afternoon of rapper sword dance and clog/step, hosted by Thrales Rapper. Last year, I managed to coincide being in the south east for the same weekend event.

View from the South Bank on Sunday morning - the Thames playing at being the seaside.


On the way to Tate Modern -



Ai Weiwei's installation -



The Gauguin exhibition was excellent, although there was enough to have kept us there all day. Click this link for an online resource of Gauguin's work.


Thrales Rapper (above) have just won DART (Dancing America Rapper Tournament) with Sallyport Sword Dancers coming third - two UK wins - plus winning the Joie de Vivre award and Sallyport winning Best Kit. Those rosettes are almost as good as the ones at quilt shows .


Guests this year included the excellent Whip the Cat - click the photo below to see a video clip of them dancing in Nottingham -


- and Stony Steppers - video link through photo again -

Rapper in London

On Sunday, Thrales Rapper hosted a dance afternoon at the Prince William Henry in Southwark - click names for relevant links and dance photos for dance videos, where I've been able to find any (from other venues - there may be some upload). From outside, it looked like a normal Sunday afternoon -

Inside!
Thrales Rapper, in the afternoon sun -


Gaorsach - all the way from Aberdeen for the weekend (dance tour with Thrales on the Saturday) -

Mabel Gubbins (from Oxford) -

Warwick University Rapper (sorry, no video links found - if you have one, please let me know) -

Camden Clog - fantastic dancing!


Hawksword -

North British -

Mummer's play -


There were several other sides but I didn't get photos of everyone, as the pub was packed. An afternoon of great British pub entertainment & culture, within walking distance of the centre of British government - the MPs & ministers don't know what they missed! They should put next year's event in their diaries and improve their cultural credentials...

My Thames panorama -

In the morning, I went to Tate Modern for the first time. Far too much to see in a short time, so we looked around just one gallery, Material Gestures. Room Six, Gerhard Richter's "Cage" series is amazing.

The White Star Plough Tour 2009

I was in west Kent last weekend for the Plough Tour, hosted by White Star Sword. We started at the George & Dragon in Speldhurst (fireplace above, with a sprig of holly on the fire) on Saturday morning. White Star dancing rapper sword, led by Brian -

North British danced longsword at the George & Dragon -

Clog dancing at the George & Dragon (sorry Anna, no better photos) -

Other entertainments on the tour included the Udimore Handbell Ringers (no photo) and West Pec, the Hooden Horse (read about the tradition here) - first photo is at the Chafford Arms, the second pub on the tour -
Second photo taken at The Rock (? did I get the right name?) -

A 3-man mummers' play -

Nick tumbling at the same pub -


Malcolm as White Star's Tommy -


The fourth pub on the main tour was the Fountain, then the two sword teams left for a second tour of other pubs, including the Kent Horse (?), the Castle Inn at Chiddingstone, the Little Brown Jug at Chiddingstone Causeway and the Leicester Arms at Penshurst. If I have got the names of any pubs wrong, please let me know. Here are North British dancing rapper at the Castle Inn -

On Sunday morning, we went to the Beeches (? can't find a website ref, so have I got the name wrong?), Tunbridge Wells - North British dancing Elgin (end of dance) -


Then via the Oak in Rusthall to the Red Lion, Rusthall. North British demonstrate how to dance longsword under a very low beam...


Both North British and White Star danced rapper in Malcolm's dining room later on - where half the Christmas decorations were removed by the end of the dancing... Rapper can be performed in a very small space.

Many thanks to all our hosts - we had a great weekend.

Rapper Sword weekend

North British were in Chirk for a dance practice weekend. They had three bookings (all the Chirk pubs), then went on to Wrexham on Saturday night (booked at the Old Swan and South Central plus one extra arranged on the doorstep) - on the whole, Wrexham pubs were less enthusiastic about letting them dance and are trying to turn themselves into gastro pubs or nightclubs to survive.

The re-enactment swords in the photo above were just for fun... real longswords look like this, while rappers are the flexible double-handled swords used in the dance photos below. No sharp edges .

Watch a youtube clip of North British here.

7.30 at The Bridge, Chirk -

The Hand Hotel, Chirk -
Spin -
Tumble at The Hand -
Rapper sword lock - 5 dancers, 5 swords.

The Stanton House Inn, Chirk (hard to take a good photo, too close, but you can see how much the swords flex).
The Old Swan Brewery, Wrexham - Andrew playing melodeon.

The Cambrian, Wrexham -

South Central, Wrexham - North British clubbing...

Tumble at South Central - if you can dance in Wrexham, you can probably dance anywhere.

The longsword lock (6 swords) features on this quilt commission I made in 2006/07, with photo images of rapper, long sword, Cotswold and North West morris dancing printed on fabric and arranged in kaleidoscope effects.
No chance to dance longsword in Llangollen as planned on Sunday - rained off! Click links to watch dances instead - Papa Stour and Elgin.