MAASAI dancers brought colourful displays of jewellery and dancing to a North Yorkshire town.

The Kenyan tribes people visited the Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton yesterday (Thursday, May 22) where they demonstrated Maasai jewellery-making during a public workshop and performed traditional dance and song at the gallery in the evening.

This morning (Friday, May 23) they visited Applegarth School, Northallerton, where they gave a performance for the primary school pupils and answered questions.

Gallery director Joni Essex said it was part of a week of African art at the gallery: “The jewellery workshop involved them talking about its history and what the different colours in the jewellery mean.

“Then everyone had a go at making the jewellery themselves with the beads. Everybody in the group was talking at once, then it went silent as everybody focused on sewing all these tiny beads on to the leather.

“Afterwards there was a question and answer session about the warriors. It was a real insight; it was so fascinating it ran over by an hour.”

The seven Maasai tribespeople were brought to the area by outdoor survival expert Jason Ingamells, who runs bushcraft courses in the UK and in the Masaa Mara with Maasai Warriors.

After leaving Northallerton, they went on to visit Derbyshire.

• Joe Cornish will be giving a free talk on his recent photographic trip to Africa tomorrow (Saturday, May 24) at 2.30pm at the Galleries.