Love dancing AND the great outdoors? This is the holiday week for you! Enjoy a light-hearted Springtime week of dancing, with opportunities to walk in the beautiful Quantock Hills each afternoon. Discover and learn about our beautiful local landscapes, while also brushing-up on your folk dance steps!
We’re delighted to welcome back caller and keen walker – Rhodri Davies. He will be joined by musicians and dedicated hikers – Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer. The team is completed by our regular walk leaders Nan Ward & Roger Phipps, who might be persuaded to dance.
You can enjoy a mixed-programme of country dance workshops each morning with Rhodri and the band. So you can brush-up your dancing skills and maybe learn a new dance or two. Then head off into the hills – quite literally – to enjoy the spectacular landscapes of this distinctive and nationally important protected area. Guided walks will be led by our knowledgeable and enthusiastic local guides – Nan and Roger, giving you a chance to learn more about the history and wildlife of the hills, or simply to enjoy an amble with in beautiful countryside in amiable company!
After your walk in the Quantock Hills it’s back to the Manor, for dinner, and dances every evening.
Feel free to bring along instruments for the odd informal session in the bar!
Who’s it For?
This course aims to be suitable for everyone with a reasonable level of fitness.
The morning dance workshops will be friendly and encouraging. Novice dancers will have the opportunity to gain confidence and more expert dancers can refine their skills and try new dances.
There will be a choice of two walks each afternoon, tailored to meet the requirements and abilities of the group. A shorter ‘stroll’ option, and a longer and more challenging route. The opportunities for walking on the Quantocks are endless!
Please note that we are not offering full-day walking options. This is primarily a dance week, with opportunities to enjoy afternoon walking in a friendly and social group.
A reasonable fitness level is required – even short walks may include steep climbs – and appropriate clothing and footwear suitable for a variety of weather conditions is essential. Car sharing will be necessary for some of the walks.
The Team
Rhodri Davies is well known as a regular caller on the UK Folk Festival scene. While he particularly specialises in contras, he covers a wide variety of styles and these will be in evidence over the week. Based in Stockport, he started dancing at Manchester University through both the folk dance society and the hiking club ceilidhs. It used to be joked that 10% losses were acceptable on any one club hike; Rhodri will be aiming for a much better success rate when teaching the dances!
Vicki Swan & Jonny Dyer have developed a strong reputation for a delivering great performances time and time again. Well known for their varied instrumental skills – Scottish smallpipes, accordion, guitar, Swedish nyckelharpa, cowhorn and more – they have developed a sound that is both familiar and fresh. The duo have a great affinity for playing for dancing, and in addition to many festival and dance club appearances, have cornered the market as a ‘zoom band’ during the corona pandemic!
Nan Ward and Roger Phipps are regular walk leader for Halsway Manor. They are keen walkers and have lived for many years in a small hamlet on the Quantocks; they invite you to join them and share their love of the Quantocks.
The Quantocks
The Quantock Hills National Landscape (previously AONB), received its protected status in 1956; its distinctive character, natural beauty and cultural heritage are so outstanding that it is in the nation’s interest to safeguard them. Explore and you will find rocky Jurassic coastline, exposed heathland summits, deep wooded combes, undulating farmland and attractive villages. A haven for wildlife, the Quantocks offer many rare habitats for flora and fauna, and are home to an important population of red deer. Evidence abounds of early settlements; Bronze Age barrows, ancient stones and ridgeways, Iron age hill forts and earthworks. Inspired by this wild hilly ridge, the young rebel poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth roamed, writing as they walked, forming the Lyrical Ballads and their notion of English Romanticism.