Almost the only things which are known about the dancers from Richard's Castle are the things which they did not do. They did not wear bells, use sticks, use handkerchiefs or have a musician. In 1957, Dr Chris Cawte would meet someone who remembered a village nearby where "...they didn't do a real dance, just jigged about a bit to amuse the children." At Richards Castle, the description runs to the effect that "...during the second strain of music the three in motley danced around each other in a serpentine fashion, occasionally coming close to a hey for three".
This proved a bit of a challenge for the first Towcester workshop, but a surprisingly effective dance can be made from only these components. With music but no musician, even in an era when musicians often danced to make up the numbers, we assume a song. Simply alternating rounds and heys actually provides "..an appareently arbitrary..." serpemtine movement. Until recently, this was our most requested dance. It has on occasion been the only dance we've been able to do. It's been performed both by us and by other sides in some pretty strange places.
And people always want the words and music, which are by Tim Brooks, sometime of Herga Morris. Where are you now, Tim?
Stepping
A low single-step, as in the Weobley Marsh dances. The hands move at half the rate of the stepping, alternate hands being thrown into the air each time the right foot makes a single-step. No-one can quite remember how this came about but the most likely explanation is that in a dance this simple, opposing hands and feet throughout looks a bit frantic.
Chorus
This fits to the chorus of the song: "So far from home...". Face clockwise and circle clockwise for eight steps (four hand movements. On the eighth step, onto the left foot, "..leave...", pivot round over the left shoulder to face counter-clockwise, using the hand movement on the next beat "...So..." to propel the body back for eight steps, finishing facing in on "...grieve!".
Figure
The figures fit to the three verses. Three dancers, three verses, how convenient. Each dancer in turn leads the hey off by passing between the other two and turning right to start a straight (-ish) hey for three, using sixteen steps. End in a circle: with practice you can time it exactly to get back to place but it doesn't matter: what matters is that you are back in time for the circle.
Starting and Finishing
Normally, we start by numbering off in public - "one, two, three" for the order of starting the hey. There is then a pause and the lead singer comes in "five, six, seven, eight..." Of course, no-one much notices, but there you are.
We finish all in on the last chorus, the singer(s) slowing down on "cause enough... to... grieve...." as the dancers face in and end with both arms raised. Sometimes you'll see a slightly odd posture of the hands, which is an in-joke too long to bore you with here. I hope you'll never see that in front of a non-morris audience.
Then the singers repeat the last line, from "Pity us..." onwards, andante cantabile as the dancers move off. It's sporting for the singers to try and do this in one breath. Time was when we could sing and dance at the same time, but it's been a couple of years since we did that and it'll most likely be a few more years before we do it again.
I never heard Tim sing the song himself, so this may not be strictly as he wrote it. It is, however, what I sing.
Chorus
So far from home, and every man's an enemy;
So far from home, and little chance of leave.
So far from home; no pretty wife to comfort me –
Pity us poor soldiers, we've cause enough to grieve.
Verses
As I walked out, one winter's morning early
The mist hung in the valley, I'd no cause to tarry long.
The cheery birds were silent, I felt the mist about me
And heard the sound of voices raised in mournful marching song.
And as I stood, a horse and armoured rider
Came marching at the vanguard of a line of trudging men.
Bright feathers in their helmets, their faces dark and cloudy
I never saw a sadder sight than passed before me then.
No sound there came from horse's hoof or bridle:
No sound from the armour or the weapons that they wore.
Only their voices, raised up in singing,
Broke the eerie silence as they marched across the moor.
The dance lends itself to ad hoc performance. Security at Moscow Sheremetyevo were somewhat surprised, but unlike the staff at Boston Logan, they let us get on with it. Our fame spread and we did a repeat performance later for the Aer Lingus staff at Sheremetyevo Duty Free Shop. We've performed it on the top deck of a Glasgow double-decker bus. It went down quite well outside a bar in Osaka, as well. We did it in the bar of the canalside pub at Blisworth, where it just fitted, and at the Cooperage in Newcastle, where it didn't, but the Landlord paid up on the bet anywy.
However, we've been thoroughly upstaged by Kintbury Choir, which featires several members of Kintbury May Maids. They performed it in the amphitheatre at Herculaneum. Have you performed this somewhere strange? If so, let me know and I'll add it to the list...