This Friday evening, I made my way to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum to enjoy RAMM Lates, a biannual night of “music, dance, craft and entertainment” run by the museum. I was excited; the event’s theme was inspired by the RAMM’s new exhibition, Dartmoor: A Radical New Landscape, so I was expecting an evening jam-packed with activities to get in touch with the Devon countryside, both geographically and culturally. I was not disappointed!
I was expecting an evening jam-packed with activities to get in touch with the Devon countryside, both geographically and culturally.
The itinerary of the evening had a vast variety of events so my friends and I picked and chose what most interested us. We began the evening by enjoying a rousing performance from Banned from the Moor, a folk-rock band who merge fiddles with guitars and drums to create an electric atmosphere. I stood, a pint of Devon Red cider in my hand, my feet tapping along to the drumbeats, getting into the spirit of what was bound to be a great night.
Following this, Banned from the Moor donned gothic attire and was joined by Beltane Border, a morris dancing troupe with a twist. As an English country boy myself, I have some prior preconceptions about morris dancing but the troupe completely subverted these. Clothed in draping scraps of black fabric, with embellished top hats and dark brooding makeup around the eyes, the morris dancers were fabulous, endowing the art form with a haunting flare. I was enthralled by their elaborate formations and percussion from the wooden sticks they struck together in unison. Moreover, each dance was introduced by a member of the troupe who would give some preamble on the mythic inspirations behind the routine, explaining the celebrations the trope still carries out to this day at Dartmoor’s stone circles every May Day and Summer Solstice.
At this point, my friends and I took a bit of time to live out our own Night at the Museum fantasy, exploring the wonderful exhibitions housed in the RAMM. As well as the astonishing taxidermy collection, I was fascinated by the North American artefacts collected at the museum, which the RAMM commendably recognises as being wrongfully taken from these peoples. It was in this World Collections room that we ended our fabulous night at RAMM Lates with some enchanting tales told by Dartmoor storytellers, Sarah Hurley and Lisa Schneidau. This was perhaps my favourite part of the night with three wonderful stories told by these women, harkening back to oral storytelling traditions of yore. My favourite story, a fairytale told by Hurley, was accompanied by a crankie, a moving panorama in which an illustrated story is wound through on a scroll; this took my breath away.
This was perhaps my favourite part of the night with three wonderful stories told by these women, harkening back to oral storytelling traditions of yore.
And so, I could not recommend RAMM Lates enough! Their next cultural evening, expected to be in April, is sure to be just as fun and entertaining as this one.
