But then it was Sidmouth time. And what a week it turned out to be – one of the most challenging but ultimately most rewarding weeks for BB in its 36 year history! Dance spots, show spots, processions, workshops, a Big Caper show, the Morris Party, and 2 LNEs were amongst the highlights of a truly exceptional week, for the most part accompanied by warm sunny weather. The week started for us with one of the first events of the week, a stick dance workshop at the Bulverton Marquee at 9.30 on the Saturday morning, ably led by Jameson. We had a surprisingly large number of people for this, who fairly quickly got to grips with Wizo the Flem though Laughing Cavalier was a little more of a challenge. After this we had a lunchtime reception for all the teams in Blackmore Gardens, followed by the first procession of the week, from the end of the Esplanade along the seafront, through the Market Square, and up Fore Street and into Blackmore Gardens. Once there, we started the afternoon dance show with Wheel of Fortune and Cavalier. Next we were along at The Hub (at the Port Royal end of the Esplanade) for the first of several appearances there during the week along with some of the other excellent dance teams – and then before we knew it that was the end of our first day commitments. Wow – where did the day go?
Next day, Sunday, is the traditional day for dancing on the prom for visiting morris teams as well as the few booked ones. We shared a spot by the York Steps with variously Windsor, Capering Crew and Fools Gambit – initially with large numbers of people watching though these reduced after a short but definitely wet shower of rain. That was the end of the formal BB commitment for the day, though many of us went along to Blackmore Gardens to watch the jig competition, where Mark did an excellent solo jig in Fools Gambit kit. After that David was in a double jig as one of Offspring, Alun and Will danced a double in Fools Gambit kit, and then the BB kit was being aired by Mark and Will, doing Go and Enlist accompanied by Sue. All of them did exceptionally well, but the most exceptional of all were clearly Mark and Will in their double jig, who deservedly came second overall – a great result.
Monday started with another early morning workshop, this time on hanky dances, where Jameson first of all taught attendees (plus several of BB) Winnersh Triangle. Most of the attendees got it in the end (though some of BB were still struggling) before moving on to Schrodingers Hat, another tricky dance to learn in a short space of time. After this we had another lunchtime performance at The Hub before sneaking off behind the childrens playground for some much needed Big Caper practice before the show later in the afternoon. Practice was interspersed with a short spot for us in the afternoon Blackmore show, after which it resumed until a sharp downpour ended it just as we had more or less finished. And then back to Blackmore for the actual show, which somewhat to our surprise went extremely well, despite the limited practice time, and despite also the unfortunate state of Jameson’s knee which meant his participation was severely curtailed. Nevertheless he was able to do a highly entertaining ‘Ugly Duckling’ dance with Simon Pipe – anything where Simon gets slapped about and dumped on the floor will always be entertaining…
Tuesday was a day off, so our next commitment was on the Wednesday – a dance display at lunchtime at The Hub. After this we were free until later afternoon when we assembled at the Bulverton to prepare for The Morris Party which we had been asked to host. We had no idea how many people might turn up for it but in the end there were many more than we had anticipated, though this was partly because later on was to be the final ever performance from Morris Offspring. Our party started at 7pm, and early arrivals had the name of a morris team pinned on their backs which they had to guess by asking yes/no questions of others. There was also a cryptic ‘spot the morris dance’ picture quiz to occupy people before our games started. The first of these was a morris either/or quiz where people had to guess the right answer or they were out, then a ‘guess the mystery morris person in the duvet’ quiz (thanks to Laurel, Chris, Andrew, Stuart and our own Jameson for being great sports), next a morris relay race involving sticks between the legs and hankies under the chin, and finally morris musical statues. The party ended with our Russians dance followed by a mass polka – and full marks to Rob in this for doing his customary cartwheel at the start rather spectacularly across a pair of crossed swords. And we finished bang on time at 8 pm, just before Sue Swifts ‘Secret Life of TED’ show, and the Morris Offspring show (featuring David and Alun), which took the time up to LNE with Mr. Gubbins Bicycle. Our evening hadn’t finished though, as we had the LNE interval spot, during which we chose what we thought would provide some real variety – a bell-less Glorishers done to Andy’s beautiful guitar accompaniment, a high-risk 10 man Jolly Jockey (2 sticks dropped in the first chorus, 1 in the second, none in the third), and then an 8 person Goblins with added bounce in the final chorus. And a great reception at the end.
Thursday started with another lunchtime display at The Hub, followed by another procession along the seafront and through the Market Square into Blackmore. We then had one of the first spots in the afternoon Blackmore show before having an hour’s break and returning to close the show with The Russians dance. In Rob’s absence, his cartwheeling solo was replaced by Jerry doing some ‘sword swallowing’ though to the crowd’s disappointment he failed to injure himself significantly. Our final spot of the day was our only appearance of the week in the Market Square, always a highlight of a Sidmouth week as it’s a place to concentrate on the crowd pleaser dances.
And finally Friday, with no let up in the action. First of all was the last of our 3 workshops, with the theme ‘innovation’. Jameson ran it in the style of TV’s ‘The Apprentice’, encouraging participants to split into teams, appoint a foreman / project manager, decide what kind of team they wanted to be, and then develop a dance idea that enabled them to demonstrate their chosen style. Although this was clearly a challenge, all of the teams rose to it extremely well and there were some excellent responses. One of the more striking was from 6 younger Offspring / Fools Gambit / BBs (including Will and Mark) who swaggered through a highly innovative dance while largely imitating Jameson throughout. Not surprisingly, they were the only one of the teams to be fired… After this we had our last afternoon session at The Hub along with several other teams before chilling out for a while at the Cricket Club (but not until we’d practiced the evening’s LNE spot somewhat incongruously outside Sue’s car parked on the cricket pitch). And then on to our final acts – the torchlight procession from Connaught Gardens along the seafront in front of the usual huge crowds all the way. This finished with a procession onto the beach (tricky as it was high tide!) followed by the dousing of the torches into the sea on the rocket signal, and then the traditional firework display marking more or less the end of the week. Not quite though for us – immediately afterwards we had to hurry to the Manor Pavilion where a minibus had been arranged to take us up to Late Night Extra, where we were to be the interval spot at the last LNE of the week doing our full Men in Black routine (the original MIB plus our Gangnam Style version). Midnight – spot starts – music blasts out – fantastic light show behind us – crowd going wild – first routine faultless including the shooting – Gangnam starts – crowd ballistic – dance ends – crowd even more ballistic – exit and out the back – and relax. Cocoa and bed. And happy memories of the week…
