Market Drayton

Country Dancing.

The Market Drayton U3A Country Dance Group

Live Country Dance Sessions are held at the Scout Headquarters, Market Drayton from 11.00 to 12.00 Noon.
These are held once a fortnight. There is a small charge of £1.50 per person to cover the hire of the hall. You don't need to come with partner. Following the pandemic, and keeping your safety in mind, we suggest you use hand sanitiser before and at the end of the session.

The Scout Headquarters is located behind and accessed from Elizabeth Court, Market Drayton

Next Live Country Dancing Session: Friday 5th April 2024

2024 Meetings:-

The Country Dancing group has been meeting for over 20 years. Until November 2022 the group was lead by Arthur Barnet. When, due to ill health, Arthur could no longer continue, Viv McVittie took over as Convener. She also now calls for the Ceilidh Band, The Tern Valley Tinkers.

Arthur retained a strong affection for and maintained a supportive interest in the group until, sadly, he passed away on 13th August 2023.

Arthur was a remarkable gentleman and is fondly remembered and greatly missed by all of us who knew him.

The following is Arthur's history of the group.

The Market Drayton Country Dance Group was formed on the 28th October 2002 and members met at the Scout Headquarters in Market Drayton on alternate Fridays from 10.30am – 11.30am. Elizabeth Court is off Shrewsbury Road opposite "The Joiners Arms."
The group is led by Arthur Barnett, a retired head-teacher, who has been teaching Country dancing for over 60 years. He has a wide knowledge of Country dances and has a huge collection of Country Dance Music and dance instructions.
A couple of years after the group had been formed, members of Whitchurch U3A joined the club and so the group had between 12 and 20 members attending each session.
In late 2008 Arthur was asked how he felt about running a group in Whitchurch and so on the 6th February 2009 a combined membership of Market Drayton and Whitchurch U3A met at the Whitchurch Civic Centre in the Edward German Room. Unfortunately the Whitchurch U3A Country dancing group no longer meets.
The group now meets on a fortnightly basis, in The Scout Hall, Market Drayton and U3A members from Drayton and Whitchurch can attend sessions. To date the group has met through the cold of winter or the heat of the summer months. We now have 10 - 18 dancers each session
New members are always welcome and are not required to bring a partner with them, but of course couples are again very welcome. No experience of Country Dancing is necessary although the ability to count to sixteen and a sense of rhythm is an advantage. A good, sensible, non-slip pair of shoes is a very good idea.
Over the last nineteen years hundreds of different dances have been taught and many are firm favourites with the group.
There is no fixed programme each week, Arthur provides dances for the number attending, so that no one is left sitting on the side and not dancing, if this can possibly be avoided.
Various formations of dance are used, including two couple, three couple, four couple, five and six couple dances. Circle dances are divided into big, double and Sicilian Circles and are used for fairly large numbers.
Dances in long sets are divided into longways for as many as will, duple and triple minor sets both proper and improper sets and occasionally in Becket Formation. Square sets of four couples are always popular and special set dances by Playford always present a challenge. Lately we have been using dances from the Regency period.
Between six and ten different dances are used during a session.
The whole idea of the group is to meet together for some healthy exercise in the form of various dances, some good music, some wonderful friends and above all real enjoyment.
Each session costs just £1 for the hire of the room and as somebody once said, “That’s the best £1 worth of value I’ve ever had.”

An additional note from Viv

ZOOM Meetings

From the 8th of May 2020, due to the pandemic, Arthur began hosting meetings online via Zoom so that we could continue Country Dancing in our own homes. It proved good fun, the exercise was welcome and it meant that we continued to meet as a group and stay in touch. As we began to come out of Covid some members still preferred these sessions to the live ones, so they continued on alternate Fridays to the live sessions at the Scout Hut. Arthur hosted 108 of these sessions and Viv hosted ten more until they were considered no longer necessary in July 2023

Viv is also the caller for "The Tern Valley Tinkers," a very talented Ceilidh Band based in Market Drayton.
For information about booking the band go to:-

Tern Valley Tinkers: info@ternvalleytinkers.com
www.ternvalleytinkers.com

Do come and try our very friendly sessions. Everyone is welcome whether a couple or a single person we look forward to welcoming you.
Sessions are now £1.50 but it's still a bargain.

You can visit another Group Page from here.