'To Slay a Bullock'
...celebrates the 100th year anniversary of Cecil Sharp's "Sword Dances of Northern England - Part1."
This special event is a collaboration between Grenoside Sword Dancers and The Newcastle Kingsmen. There has been a long relationship between the teams that started in 1951 when the Grenoside dance was taught to the fore-runners of the Kingsmen, "The Kings College Morris Men." Recently, this friendship has been rekindled and this collaborative project was developed.
The aim is to express the spirit of the dances as collected by Sharp and also how they have developed since that time. The show will include a group of musicians and singers drawn from Grenoside and the Kingsmen. Dances will be linked by new works and adaptations of the calling on songs.
The performance will be enhanced with the imagery of bulls. You may ask why? The Grenoside Dancers used the expression "Slaying the bullock" for the killing of the captain prior to the second world war. Research also shows that the following lines appear in the 'old' Earsdon calling on dance...