Berkshire Bedlam Morris
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Welcome to the Home Page of Berkshire Bedlam! |
BB - still rated amongst the top 99% of all Morris sides in the country..... |
Who are we ?
Berkshire
Bedlam,
a renowned Cotswold Morris dance team from Wokingham in Berkshire, were formed in
1977, and perform a wide range of dances. While some are based on the legendary
Leafield dances of Oxfordshire, the majority of today's repertoire is
original compositions put together in recent years. Whatever the dance, BB's aim is to perform
with gusto and spirit, and to present spectacular and original
performances. Do
we succeed? - come and see us to find out!
You can find out lots more about us through this site including
something of our history, and a guide to the dances in our past and
present repertoire. There are old and recent pictures of the side in our
gallery section, latest
news of events, a guide to our media appearances, and you
can even find out what happens at a Berkshire Bedlam Bunfight.
New dancers are always welcome at any of our weekly practices whether an
experienced dancer or a novice, and we can provide full tuition for anyone keen
to have a go - contact details at the bottom of the page!
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Recent and Future Happenings .... |
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BB Bunfight - thanks for coming! We had a great evening in November with the much anticipated return of our annual Bunfight ceilidh! With a theme of 'Abba and all things Swedish', and the fabulous Diatonics playing, Emma Wooders calling, and a host of BB style entertainments, it was really good to be have all the idiosyncrasies of the Bunfight back again . As usual there were some highly imaginative outfits on show, and later on a special spot from BB, who showed one way to perform to the Wellerman sea shanty (other ways are available...). If you missed it this time, come and join us on Sat 25th Nov 2023 when we'll be doing it all again! 
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2022 - a welcome return We're delighted to have been back to regular performances in 2022 after the disrupted schedules of the last couple of years. And it's been a full year of events, with appearances at the Oxford Folk Festival, Wokingham May Fayre, a fabulous 50th birthday weekend with Great Western Morris, days out in Windsor, Kirtlington, Brighton and Sidmouth, plus the Shrewsbury Folk Festival and the Wallingford Bunkfest during the summer. We've finished the year off with the return of the Bunfight and the Wokingham Winter Carnival in November, and the St. Thomas's Day dance out in Wokingham in December - great to be back! 
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BB in Lockdown ... |
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We might not have performed but the side's time wasn't wasted during lockdown, with two video documentaries reflecting the long months with no danceouts. Thanks to all of the team who took part in them, and a special thanks to the brilliant Ben Potton for the time, effort, imagination and editing skills needed to make them happen! (click below for videos) |
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 Lockdown
- 1The team chat about how they are finding lockdown and reminisce about bygone times... |
 Lockdown
- 2The team get restless and plan new career choices - but the urge to dance is never far away... |
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BB in the Media and elsewhere! |
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| We've popped up in all sorts of unusual places and odd guises over the years - here are a few: | |
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 On CBBC's Chucklevision with Paul and Barry Chuckle.... |
 On BBC's Eggheads, where we were one question away from £59,000 |
 On CBBC's Spacehoppers with Big Cook Ben and Little Cook Small |
And we've been asked not to mention a guest appearance at one of Sting's birthday parties, along with a selection of celebrity guests including David Walliams, Robert Downey Jr, Kevin Spacey, and others, so we're not going to mention that. See our Media Page for more details of some of these, plus links to a range of YouTube clips of our morris performances, some unforgettable special spots, pop videos and more! There are also links to DVDs featuring us, so that you can also have a little BB at home with you! |
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Contact Us / Join Us / Book Us
THURSDAY
EVENING PRACTICES - ALL WELCOME - CONTACT US IF INTERESTED!
We're always delighted to welcome
new members. We normally practice on Thursday evenings at the Scout Hut in Evendons Lane,
Wokingham, RG41 4DX (next to the Redlands Farm Park car park -
click
here for map) and dance out at festivals, pubs and
other events throughout the summer. If you would like to come to any of our
practice evenings to try it for yourself, you will be very welcome, especially
for our autumn practice evenings aimed at beginners and improvers - we also run
occasional weekend practices for those who can't make a Thursday evening. If you would like to find out
more about us, or check if we may be available for a particular event, our
contact details are:
Main contact & Webmaster
- Malcolm Major - Tel 07715 294568, or e-mail malcolm at
berkshirebedlam dot org
You can also contact the following :
Foreman
- Charles Allison ( Cmuisca1 at aol dot com)
Squire
- David Steptoe ( dsteptoe at outlook dot com)
Publicity -
Florent Crepineau (florentcrepineau at yahoo dot fr)
And finally, if you
would like to find out more about other Morris sides, or Morris dancing in
general, try these links :
Morris Side Finder : a UK wide
guide to find teams in all parts of the country
Wikipedia's
Morris Dance Page :
a good
explanation of the origins, history, terminology and different styles of morris
and remember ....
....it never rains on Berkshire Bedlam