Anstey Royale Chalfont was formed in 1984 by a group of women keen to dance the vigourous style of Morris dancing from the North West of England, just one of the several traditions of Morris dancing to be found in England. They are currently the only women's team performing this tradition in Leicestershire.
Most of the dances which Anstey Royale Chalfont perform are traditional and take their names from towns and villages where they were first danced, in Lancashire, Cheshire and parts and West Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Like most North West teams however, they do have some dances devised specially for them.
Many of the dances were initially processional dances. Teams would dance through the streets at carnival time, performing the figures of the dance wherever there was and audience and using the simpler chorus figures to process.
The leader of the team would choose which figure was to be danced, depending on the size of the audience, the space available and the type of ground on which the team was dancing. Consequently, the dancers would not know what figure was to be danced until the leader called out the name of the figure she had chosen. The style of stepping used is often accentuated by the wearing of clogs with wooden soles and leather uppers.
Anstey Royale Chalfont are always happy to welcome new members, dancers or musicians at our Tuesday evening practises at The Linford in Newtown Linford at 7:45pm.
Anstey Royale Chalfont are members of The Morris Federation.