Roll Back the Carpet
began more than ten years ago now, practicing in the
back room of Woodnook, Louise Eaton's house, when she
had to clear the carpeted floor of furniture in order
to put down some hardboard on which to dance.
Our first dance - Woodnook Stomp - was composed during this period.
When we grew from four to six and then to eight it
became clear that the floorboards were taking a great
strain - or rather Louise's long suffering husband was
when he complained that he had difficulty keeping his
chair still whilst sitting in the front room!
We were very lucky
to find the Dale Room in the Victoria Hall a
year later where we composed our second dance - The Dale
Dance.
The Victoria Hall is situated in the beautiful location of the
historic
Saltaire Village
where we see many a wonderful sunset over the village
rooftops from the windows of our practice room.
We now have a repertoire of dances which we have accumulated or made up or
adapted (sometimes all three!) over the years.
Our group grew
to a fantastic 20+ at one time, but then some dancers
who travelled quite a distance split off to form groups in
their own part of the world so now we can say we have spawned
three Appalachian dance groups who are functioning in the
Yorkshire area.
We are still
meeting in Saltaire and our members continue to
come from miles around - as far away as Keighley and
Garforth. We mostly do the '
Green
Grass' style of Appalachian clogging - with a bit of
flatfooting and other stuff thrown in for good measure!
If you want to see us in action come along to the next
Day
of Dance in May or October.
New dancers and musicians
are always welcome - no previous experience is
necessary. We are a friendly group and we laugh a lot. Above
all we love to dance and enjoy ourselves so why not come and
give it a try?