This is usually the first dance we teach to newcomers, as it's a nice easy one to pick up.
We use one of two tunes: if Judy's playing we use the traditional tune, which is the one shown in the PDF file, but if Sophie's playing we use a modern tune, the history of which we are currently trying to trace. We think it originated with a Suffolk band called Syzewell Gap but it seems to have undergone one or two twists in the meantime. Watch this space and if we manage to pin it down we'll add it to the site!
This is a very unusual dance and although it's nominally in the Bampton style, it doesn't really follow any normal pattern, and certainly isn't traditional. We're not sure where it came from originally, but we think it might have been invented by a Canadian side. It's danced in a kind of lozenge-shaped formation, with the dancers moving on to the next place after each figure. We've made an effort to keep it in the side because it's so different to everything else we do.
Otherwise known as "chicken chasing" - or at least during practices! The movement of the hankies in the chorus is said to represent the gathering in of the wheat followed by the shaking out of the chaff.
There's at least one other "Bampton Sidestep" dance, so we're not quite sure of the origins of this one, but we do know where the tune came from: it was written by Paul Ferrett, formerly of Cry Havoc. Many thanks to Paul for giving us permission to reproduce it.
A lot of sides, including Lagabag, use this as a 'farewell' dance - the last dance of an event, where we get as many people as possible to join in, as we do (for example) every year at the Ipswich Riverside Folk Weekend (see http://www.irfmf.org.uk/07bonnygreen.htm).
The tune also ended up being used for a song that Sophie wrote about dancing the sun up on May Day - it's available on the playlist at http://www.myspace.com/3triangle3. Sophie's dad Mike was a morris dancer, so the tune was appropriate in more ways than one.
