Birthday swords

On my birthday, my family and I started playing around with my longswords.  I set my husband and daughter a challenge to see how many locks they could find using six swords.  In the process, they invented one new one and created an improved version of one that I've seen in a book.  Here's some of what we came up with. 

This is the Mohr lock - I learnt it from an American Rapper dancer

Black Joker lock (or you can call it a farm gate if you prefer.) This is a more rigid version of a known lock.

I found a good way of making it quickly, too.

Lindsey's lock. She found this one that I hadn't seen before.

Richard's Yacht lock.  This may actually be one that nobody else had before.

If you want to play yourselves, just cut out some strips of cardboard from a cereal packet or similar, and interweave them.

You'll probably manage to fins the six pointed start before long, but there are others, as well, that I've not shown here...

Tradiational Cotswold at its best.

This is Nonesuch Morris, whom I've only just come across. They're a mixed team from Bristol and do traditional Cotswold morris that is truly excellent.

Just look at the precision of the teamwork and the leaps and the crisp hanky work.

Poor hanky work can look terrible, which is why Border morris sides shy away from hanky dances, but when they're done to this standard, they can look fantastic.

 

Watch on YouTube

I'm just about to email them and ask if they'd like to come to Wimborne Minster Folk Festival next year.  I'm dance director of the festival and I'd love it if they could come.

One of the reasons I'm posting so little here is that festival work is taking up a lot of my time at the moment.  The festival isn't until next June, but this is the time when lot of dance teams make their decisions about where they are performing next summer.  Thus, a heavy correspondence load.