Community

Such a lovely session [...] especially for us neurodivergent folk. Small but perfect.
Nina, Access Folk workshop and sharing session attendee

As well as folk being Roary's job through performance and education, Roary leads and is part of many other community folk groups and events. Check out the below to see if any are of interest to you!

Singing sessions run by Roary

Auntie Shanty
Feminist sea shanty session held at the Jolly Farmers, Oxford, on the first Monday of the month, starts 6pm
The Half Moon Singaround
Open singaround held at the Half Moon, Oxford, on the second Monday of the month, starts 8pm

Dancing Spires

Roary is president of Oxford's rainbow rapper dance (similar to Morris dancing, but with swords!) team, who are always keen to accept enthusiastic new dancers and musicians.

Roary also sits on the Morris Federation committee as Equality and Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) representative, as well as on Joint Morris Organisation's EDI panel, so feel free to contact them about anything relating to EDI in morris or sword dancing.

Access Folk

Roary has been involved in this project run by the Ethnomusicology Department at the University of Sheffield, exploring ways to increase and diversify participation in folk singing in England through participatory research. They received a Small Project Grant to run a series of songwriting/editing workshops, initially culminating in a relaxed sharing event in March 2025. Following the sucess of this, the project was extended and a second sharing event took place in December 2025. Whilst the project is now over, Roary would be keen to run similar workshops and/or sharing events if there is interest. Please see the education page for more information about other workshops or use the form on the contact page if you would like Roary to run a workshop for you.

Roary, a white person with short brown hair and a very small top-knot is dancing in their rapper sword dance team.  They are wearing a grean t-shirt, black corduroys cut off at the knee, knee-lenth rainbow socks and a rainbow sash around their waist to match.  The person next to them is wearing the exact same outfit, except that their t-shirt is blue, and three more dancers can just be seen behind them, wearing yellow, orange and red t-shirts respectively, all of whom are joined to each other by holding bendy pieces of metal with handles at either end.
Kiwi Apteryx-Tokoeka