Family and friends filled a morris dancer’s funeral with the music, song and dancing she loved.
Jean Yannacopoulou, who died aged 77, had been involved with many folk dance sides, particularly morris groups.
She was a member of Hurst Morris but had also been involved with Reading’s Aldbrickham Clog and Step Dancers, Fleet Morris and Maidenhead-based Ellington Morris and Taeppa’s Tump.
Her husband Nic Yannacopoulos and their son Jason are members of Kennet Morris of Reading but also members of Hurst and of Ellington Morris.
Dancers from Kennet Morris, Hurst Morris and Fleet Morris performed processional dances behind the coffin as it entered Easthampstead Park Crematorium chapel and also as the congregation left after the ceremony.
Jean’s Hurst Morris straw hat covered in flowers was placed on top of her coffin.
Nic and Jason were among the Kennet and Hurst Morris members who danced to the hymn Lord of the Dance while the Kennet musicians played. The pair also danced with Hurst Morris to a traditional tune Black Joke, accompanied by their musicians.
In his eulogy to his mother, Jason said: “She was a wonderful human being who cared greatly for her family and all her friends. She loved morris dancing, going to gigs and festivals and seeing historic places.” Jason is married to Abbie-Gayle. Jean also leaves her daughter Alexandra.
The Kennet musicians led everyone out at the end of the service which was conducted by the Revd Vicci Davidson.
Jean and Nic, both computer scientists with a PhD, met when they worked at International Computers Ltd (ICL) at Bracknell. They became friends with colleagues who were all folk and morris dancers; some now with Hurst Morris. Jean went on to work for Oracle, a global software company, in Thames Valley Park.
“We joined Hurst Morris in about 2005. With some of the busiest programmes that I know, they gave us great opportunities to dance out,” said Nic of Cox Green.
“Jean liked performing in public, chatting with the audience and demonstrating folk dance, and morris in particular, to people who hadn’t had the chance to be involved before.”
Nic said Jean was highly educated in morris, having studied in detail the “black book” of dances collected by Cecil Sharp and others in the 1910s and how they had evolved over the years. She also used as reference the papers left by Roy Dommett, a rocket scientist and expert morris dancer and choreographer.
Jean created Hurst Morris’s banner and dolls dressed in the side’s kit for a national collection. She loved traditional folk music and had a strong interest in the evolution of folk rock from 1967, as played by The Albion Band, Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span.
She also loved country walking, and attending equestrian events with Nic.
