In 2020 musician and researcher, Bob Ellis, published a wonderful book (‘There was None of this Lazy Dancing!’) in which he set out the collected tunes, dances, and accounts from those people. It is a fantastic resource. In his book you can note not only the similarities and differences between some of the various versions of the dances and tunes, but also of the gaps in some of the accounts of the dances that were regularly danced.

 

Peter is working to realise all the dances described and referred to in Bob’s book and in other recorded accounts, and he has published the first of a number of books which will cover these dances and their many variants.

 

The No Lazy Dancing Dance Band is a collective whose aim is to promote the music and dance of the Yorkshire Dales.

 

Peter calls with the band, and he and Mark Wallace are leading a project to bring the dances back to the Dales towns and villages. They expect that work to start in 2025.