Neighbours getting down in lockdown, dancing on drives
AT FIRST IT WAS JUST ME AND MY FRIEND NEXT DOOR
is not much to be cheerful about in these difficult and sad times of Covid-19 – but a street in one Leicestershire village has united in dance to help raise spirits.
At 11am every morning for the past five weeks, the residents of Croft Way, in Markfield, have been “getting down in the lockdown” by gathering at the end of their drives for a boogie.
The sounds of the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever, Martha and the Vandellas, Jimmy Hendrix, Guns N’ Roses and many more have been echoing around the crescent as the occupants of more than 50 households take a welcome break from their isolation.
The daily dancing is the idea of mum-of-three Joanne Norwood, who is a youth leader with the village’s Queen Bee youth group for girls.
She said: “It was a friend of mine who mentioned it to me after seeing a street in Ireland do something simTHERE ilar. I thought ‘why not,’ after all, I’m well known for organising some crazy things for the girls down at the youth club.”
Joanne first left her front door, with a loud speaker linked to her online musical selection, on Sunday, April 5.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect at first,” she said.
“I think my daughters and husband must though I crazy.
“I posted some leaflets through the doors of my neighbours and advertised that I was planning on a village Facebook group. At first it was just me and my friend who lives next have was door.
“We did feel a bit foolish but after a while everybody started gathering outside their front doors and at the bottom of their drives.
“And before you knew it, we were all grooving in the street.”
She added: “Ever since then, we haven’t looked back. It’s been incredible, really. It’s brought people together in a way I didn’t think possible.
“There are a lot of elderly people in our street, and also NHS workers and people who live alone.”
We did feel a bit foolish but after a while everybody started gathering on their drives