For us, Morris dancing is all about putting on a show to demonstrate our part of England's cultural heritage, so we love to dance at events such as fairs, fêtes, festivals, farmers' markets, weddings, or even corporate events. We have demonstrated and taught the Morris in schools and to youths' and children's groups, such as Guides and Brownies. You can book us to come and dance for you, but here is some basic information so that you can see if what we do is suitable for your event. To get an idea of what we do, if you haven't seen us already, why not have a look at our videos, on this site or on Youtube? Click here for a list of links.
How far will Kettle Bridge travel?
Our home town is Maidstone, but as our members come from a much wider area, our usual dance area is anywhere in Kent to the west of Ashford. If you have looked at the other pages on our website, you will know that we have travelled to many other parts of the world, so (within reason) other locations are possible!
What sort of dancing area do Kettle Bridge need?
This is most important, as the surface must be suitable for dancing in clogs.
Outdoors: Two surfaces on which we can't dance are grass and gravel. Otherwise, any hard level (ish) surface will do, as long as it is free of obstructions and can be tarmac, paving, concrete, etc.
Indoors: Most surfaces are OK, except carpet, as long as they are not highly polished (i.e. slippery) and will stand up to clogs. The dancers' clogs have a wooden sole with a rubber composition "horseshoe" underneath, so the clogs will not mark or scratch a wooden floor.
What size should the dancing area be?
Ideally, this will be about 30 feet by 30 feet, or 9m x 9m in Euro-speak, but we can, however, fit easily into a smaller area if necessary.
What else do Kettle Bridge need for their performance?
We like to dance in the round, i.e. with the audience all around us, except that our band, which can be 10 strong, will need to be inside the audience circle.
It is rare that we need any amplification for the band, as our combination of various squeeze boxes and drums makes enough noise on its own!
How much dancing will Kettle Bridge do and how long will it last?
The usual length of a performance, with four to six dances, is anything between 15 and 30 minutes, including a little time for setting up and finishing. For most events, we are asked to do two performances, which can be separated by an hour or so, but we are happy to fit in with your programme requirements.
One part of our performance which always seems to go down well is a little audience participation. As this suggests, we end the dancing by asking members of the audience to join in and have a go at the basic elements of one of our more straightforward dances, a little tuition first followed by a go with the band playing at a gentle pace! All good fun, we have even been known to recruit new dancers this way!
Lastly, please do not put us too close to another musical act or anything too noisy if it is on at the same time, or if you have music playing over a PA system we would appreciate this being switched off during our performance, so that our band is not in competition.
How much notice do Kettle Bridge need?
Our summer programme planning starts in October of the previous year, so before Christmas is the best time to contact us for an event taking place the following summer. Outside our core dancing season, which lasts from May Day to September, we would need less notice. Most events are on weekends, which is best for us, but we might be able to fit in a week-day evening.
What does it cost to book Kettle Bridge?
Running a Morris side costs quite a bit, so that, depending on the type of event, we will require a contribution towards this expenditure, to be agreed at the time of booking. The amount will depend on the type of event, length of performance, travelling distance, etc.
How do I contact Kettle Bridge?
Please use the Contact form if you would like more information or are interested in booking us for your event and our secretary will contact you, by email or telephone as you prefer.
Kettle Bridge Clogs web site by Stephen Cordery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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