Roll Back the Carpet
began in the early 1990's, practicing in the back room of Woodnook, Louise Eaton's house in Saltaire, 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!
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?
