Clog dancer from Silksworth, Co. Durham
She learned as a child from her grandfather, William Wynn, who also gave her father lessons at the same time. Interestingly her grandfather, perhaps because of his age, taught her while he was siting down.
She performed at charity concerts and similar events although never professionally.
She was able to recall a number of sets of steps which she generally preferred to perform to particular tunes. She had two sets of four steps each danced to the Sailors’ Hornpipe, a set of five steps to Woodland Flowers, a set of steps to Lily of Laguna and a number of waltz steps for which she could not recall the tune.
She was very particular about stylistic details. She had shown the simple set of Sailor’s Hornpipe steps to other dancers, notably Geoff Hughes and these have become relatively well-known in revival clog dance circles as the “Sunderland Hornpipe”.
Her steps and background information were filmed at her home in Silksworth in 1984.
Her hornpipe steps, together with a full history, have been published in Jarman, J. and Smith, A., Mrs Marhoff. Single & Double Hornpipe, Newcastle: Newcastle Series, (1982).
Information from interviews with Viona Marhoff on 18/2/1982, 25/2/1982 and 3/3/1982.