2008

Festival of Dance 2008

The aim of this year's Dance Festival was to feature traditional dance groups based in Cornwall.

The dancers who stole the show on the Saturday, however, had to be the Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia Group who, dressed in flowers, leaves and coconut shells, filled the stage with their beautiful, rhythmic and graceful dancing, and filled the backstage area with their laughter.

Their organisation (MMP group) is based in St Austell, but the performers come from all over Britain and even from Europe as well, and are mainly families originating from the Pacific Islands who aim to preserve and promote the culture and traditions of the islands...and when they get together they aim to have fun!

We were particularly pleased to have three young dancers along from Celtic Steps, who have recently started offering Irish dancing classes in Newquay, and they gave us a wonderful display of Irish step dancing.

Many of our regular participants were back with us. The Bev-Lyn Flamenco dancers were, as ever, superb, the Scottish dancers were splendid in their kilts, the Salsa dancers demonstrated that sexy dancing is for everybody, and Saffron Maids gave the backstage crew their annual North-West morris workout, and showed us what yellow dusters are for!

We also had four groups performing mainly traditional Cornish dances, each in their own individual style, and also some Cornish Nos Lowen dancing which the audience had fun joining in with.

One of the nice things about the Festival of dance is the spirit of friendship and cooperation which it engenders amongst the participants, performers and organisers alike. This year brought together many groups and individuals with one thing in common...a love of traditional dance and a desire to perform, promote and enjoy it for its own sake, and to keep it alive.

Many thanks to Hobgoblin and the sound crew (who as always did an excellent job), to Skinners Brewery for all the lovely beer (without which the organisers could not function), to Ginsters for providing pasties of whatever sort we wanted on demand, and to everybody who made the whole event such a success.

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The Morris Dancing

One again the Morris Dancers arrived on Saturday to give their usual spirited display.

This year we were entertained by Cogs and Wheels, Tinners, Dartmoor Border and Lodestone. All of the sides came from Devon.

They danced at the Members Concourse, outside the new Pavilion Centre, and they then went off around the showground to dance for the crowds.

This event has now become a firm favourite of the Royal Cornwall Show, and we hope that it will continue for many years ahead maybe attracting morris sides from further afield.