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Spring Force is EFDSS’s morris/contemporary dance project, developed in 2010 in partnership with Pavilion Dance/Dance South West and performed by So We Boys Dance, the all male youth dance group for South West England. The dancers aged 13 -19 spent two intensive weekends in May and August working with their own contemporary choreographer Benjamin Dunks and morris dancer, teacher and choreographer Laurel Swift, to create a new 4½ minute dance work fusing movements and figures of traditional Cotswold morris with contemporary dance.  The live musical score for the piece was created and performed by concertina player and composer Robert Harbron, based on the traditional morris tunes Bonnets O’ Blue (Bledington) and Ring O’ Bells (Lichfield).

In autumn 2010 the boys performed Spring Force at 3 high profile venues: at the Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer as part of David Owen’s 5000 Morris Dancers weekend at the Southbank Centre early in September; at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of September, as part of On Show, CCPR’s 75th Anniversary performance featuring over 30 groups and 900 performers from all over the country; and finally at the Pavilion Dance Gala at the Pavilion Theatre, Bournemouth on 7 November, in a show alongside dancers from the Royal Ballet, Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company, Seeta Patel and Avant Garde Dance Company.

Eckhard Thiemann, Artistic Programme Consultant for Dance South West / Pavilion Dance, and the Gala’s producer said:

‘The inclusion of Spring Force in the Pavilion Dance Gala aimed to include a dance form which is popular and widely practiced in the South West, but rarely shown on-stage. We wanted to highlight how the interaction between progressive professional artists and local dancers can achieve an artistically strong work for the theatrical stage. I feel that Spring Force stood up to the test and presented a convincing example of young people being inspired and challenged by this interaction. Our audiences equally were inspired and emotionally moved by a work which employed complex choreography and a real sense of collective and individual identity. We also commissioned a large-scale hip-hop production for Pavilion Dance Gala, and it was interesting to see how Spring Force displayed just as much contemporary relevance and inspirational engagement for the participants and audience.’

Spring Force is part of EFDSS's work to create new and positive links between traditional dance and the wider world of dance, and to raise the profile of the folk arts in the UK. It aims to demonstrate that morris is a dynamic, challenging and creative dance form with value for young dancers, whilst contributing to the development of the form and widening the contexts in which it takes place. Plans are currently being developed to share working methods developed through this project within the folk and dance education worlds.