Eight-Man Wheatley

All Welsh morris dances have 8 dancers and there's no reason why Wheatley dances shouldn't be danced with 8, say, Cardiff Morris Dancers (well, ever since February 1993, they have been). What's more, the only figure which has to undergo any serious adjustment is the hey.

Eight-Person Wheatley Hey

The hey (and, of course, the double hey) is danced in exactly the same way as the 6-person hey, but with special provision for a second pair of middles.

The simple way of describing this is that the middles should be referred to as top middles and bottom middles. The bottom middles dance the hey exactly as the top middles do, but they follow the bottom pair instead of the top pair.

Having cleared this up, we really have to establish a pecking order, so as to be sure who gives way to whom when they meet. The simplest rule, and the one we settled upon, is that the order of priority at all times is:

1. tops
2. bottoms
3. top middles
4. bottom middles

This naturally results in the bottom middles spending most of their time dancing up and down the outside of the set while other pairs pass between them, but it works remarkably well in practise.

Room for the Cuckoo Chorus

The choruses for most of the dances are unaltered by having the extra 2 men, the exception being Room for the Cuckoo. Since there are now two pairs of middles, the outcome is fairly logical: when the top middles embark on their circumnavigation of the set, the new bottom middles simply do the same thing in reverse, passing right shoulders at the bottom of the set, right at the half way point, and left shoulders at the final two encounters. The final result needs to be seen from outside the set to gather the full impact.

Line-Abreast Finishes

Not a change as such, but remember that in the line-abreast finishes of Rigs of Mallow and Greensleeves, you'll need to ensure that you've left enough room for eight dancers...

Return to The Wheatley page.

© Cardiff Morris 1996