Playford in the Pub

Playford in the Pub is back at Shakespeare's on Thursday 29 October, the last Thursday of the month. It's a night of Playford folk dancing and music in the upstairs room of the Kelham Island pub, which has been the home of these sessions since they started in 2014.

The night is run by callers Daisy Black and Andrew Swaine, who lead the dancing. They describe the sessions as intergenerational and gender-free, and they offer both positional and role-based calling, so you can follow along however you prefer. The room welcomes dancers, callers, musicians and beginners alike, and the aim is to reproduce the original fun of the dances rather than to 'over-improve' them.

Shakespeare's itself is a well-known folk venue in Kelham Island, built in 1821 and still retaining much of its original character, packed with trinkets and memorabilia. The sessions grew with the help of friends from Folk in South Yorkshire and the University of Sheffield's CeilidhSoc, and they sit within the wider work of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, whose magazine English Dance and Song was first published in 1936.

It starts at 8 pm in The Bard's Bar, the upstairs room, with a suggested donation of £5 on the door.