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Isca Morris May Day Performances
Along with many other sides in the country, we have kept to tradition by dancing at dawn every year since the formation of the side and even at this time we get an audience. Our traditional activities sometimes attract the interest of the press and over the years we have been very popular with a variety of published articles and photographs. We also quite often get written compliments on the atmosphere and dancing, but none can quite compare to the poem receive with thanks and written in our honour in 2007:
First of May Two Thousand and Seven
Creeping from night into day, the treetops sing
Carolling the dawn of this new day, this special day of all days
No rays of sun to warm us yet, we rub our hands and blow on them
We gather in this ancient place almost furtively
Our soft jingling steps making our way down between the old stones
And across the dewed grass as if flocking to prayer
We wait in solitude, it is a dark time.
No one hears us, no one else comes near.
A fiddler, playing as he walks in his black leather shoes,
Fills the air with merry expectation
He silences the birds; it's as if they know their job is done
Now is the time for ritual, a time for Men, the Morrismen
The pipes join the fiddle, the accordion wheezes out a tune
With swish of coloured rags the men begin the dance
Dance the old pagan ritual in the only way they know how
With abandon, with jollity and with acorn caps askew
With ringing from their knees and toes, whirling all around
Waving their sticks for strength and their rags for persuasion
With such exuberance and energy how can the sun refuse to show?
Come you beautiful golden globe, you dazzling yolk of gold
The sun is shy, but it peeks out to bathe the dancers
Come on lads skip, make merry; make it worthy of the day
The music rises with the sun,
The Morrismen rise with the sun
We rise with the sun,
All hail, the sun is risen
© Cathy Roberts May 2007
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We always begin our dancing season with the May Day tour, starting with dancing from 5.20 a.m. in Caerleon and continuing until around 6.40 a.m. by which time the sun has hopefully risen. The early morning spot is then followed by a hearty breakfast at The Gladiator in Malpas and then by a full day's tour. The tour will either continue on the same day when May 1st falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday, or on the following May Day Bank Holiday in other cases.
To give you a flavour of the day's activities, it's a cold May morning at around 5.15 a.m. in Caerleon Amphitheatre:
Well let's have a border stick dance now that the circulation is starting to move . . .
And now for one of the few remaining Welsh morris dances, Y Caseg Eira
We're now part way through our May Morning dancing spot and it's dawn with the sun rising to greet the new day
Finally, a quick pose for the album and sadly that's it for another year
After a longish spot of about 80 minutes, it's off to a well earned breakfast at around 7 a.m. and another dance spot
Just time for a quick souvenir photo with Russell, the owner, before it is time to move on
By now the dancers are in full flow and raring for action, so it's off to the Cathedral in Newport to meet some more of our dancing friends and by the time we reach 10.00 a.m., the Isca Men are dancing to an appreciative audience.
Time for another quick pose with some of the audience before the tour heads off to Usk and beyond.
It's warming up around an hour later in Usk as the groups perform their traditional spot in the main square.
Moving on, and the spot before lunch with another fine display by the dance groups
Whilst in Abergavenny, we are delighted to meet Cathy Roberts, author of the excellent poem, who is shown with Les, our Webmaster and past Squire
Now for a short break, a welcome lunch and a chance to relax over a pint and a few songs before we move over to Magor
After lunch, the Spring Fair at Magor and the end of another fine day's dancing
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