I am a proficient dance teacher/caller of English social folk dance and can be found running ceilidhs for dancers of all ages and abilities. In 2019 I led the ‘Forgotten Social Folk Dances’ workshops at Chippenham Folk Festival with John Kirkpatrick. This was part of a broader project reconstructing English collected social dances. You can see some videos here:
Whilst now formerly retired from morris dancing I have had the joy of performing with a number of teams including Belles of London City, Queen’s Oak Border Morris (Northamptonshire), New Esperance Morris (London), Somerset Morris and Nonesuch Morris (Bristol). You can see me dancing rapper sword and Cotswold morris in Will Pound’s 2017 music video “Through the Seasons” and morris dancing in Karla Kane’s “King’s Daughters Home For Incurables” In 2014 I entered the Sidmouth Morris Jig Competition with my Husband Jake.
I learnt clog dancing with Stony Steppers and Camden Clog . I perform clog as part of Innocent Hare and The Grand Union Canal Entertainment Company , but I particularly enjoy improvising in clog and hard shoe.
Published Research
2024. ‘The Origins of the Couple Dance and Eponymous Melody ‘Varsoviana’. Folk Music Journal. 12.5. Accessed Here:
2023. “Hornpipe stepping at barn dances and ceilidhs in England”. The conference proceedings of “Stepping On: Proceedings of the 2019 conference on stepping in dance”. London: English Folk Dance and Song Society. Edited by Toby Bennett. Accessed Here:
2022. “Couple Dance, Douglas Kennedy’s English Folk Dance Society, and the British Old Time Dance Revival”. Country Dance and Song Society’s Online Journal (CD+S Online). Accessed Here:
2022. “The Suffolk Christmas Dance in Adrian Bell’s The Cherry Tree (1932).” Folk Music Journal. Volume 12 no.2. pp.60-71. Accessed Here:
2021. PhD Thesis. Barn Dances, Ceilidhs, and Country Dancing in England 1945-2020: An Examination of Non-Specialist English Social Folk Dance.
Dance Department: University of Roehampton. Accessed Here:
“A deeply intelligent, interesting and stimulating piece of work.” Vic Gammon 12.8.2025
“Chloe’s thesis offers a substantial, well-written and clearly articulated mapping of the current expression of English folk dancing and music in the county of Buckinghamshire.” Dr Ann David and Colin Quigley, Viva Report Form 4.2.2021
2021. “Douglas Kennedy and Folk Dance in English Schools”. The Routledge Companion to English Folk Performance. Edited by Steve Roud and Peter Harrop. Routledge. eBook ISBN9780429299063. Details Here:
2021. The History and Development of Dark Border Morris. The Morris Federation. Accessed Here:
2019. An Introductory Bibliography of Traditional Social Folk Dance. London: Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. www.vwmlsocialdancebibliography
2019. ‘Morris Dance as Ritual Dance, or, English Folk Dance and The Doctrine of Survivals’
OU religion Blog. 15.1.2019. Accessed Here:
2018. ‘Gender Roles in Contemporary Barn Dance’ in: Locating Women in the Folk: Conference Proceedings, Sussex, 2018. Edited by Steve Roud. Accessed Here:
Talks
2026. Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Online Course with Mike Heaney. “Folk Uncovered: Online Library Course – Exploring English Folk Dance.” EFDSS (online). Topics covered included: What is Folk?; Step and Clog dance; Maypole; Broom, Stave Dancing, Flail Dancing, Wassail Dancing and Social Dance.
2023. ‘A brief history of English Folk Dance Calling’. 20.11.2023. ‘Caller’s Chat: The Role of Calling in Social Folk Dance with Chloe Middleton-Metcalfe’ Watch on Youtube Here:
2021. ‘Considering Morris Dance Costumes as English National Dress’. The Morris Federation Lecture Series. 6.11.21. Watch on Youtube Here: Write up here:
2020. ‘Barn Dances, Ceilidhs and Knees Ups: Social Folk Dance in England, 1945–2020’. VWML Lecture. 12.2.2020. Watch on Youtube Here:
Chloe Middleton-Metcalfe 