|
 |
The term ‘Morris’ covers a
variety of styles of show dance from different parts of England.
Something with a similar name (‘Moorish’, ‘Moresque’) seems to have
flourished throughout Europe in the 15th century, and traditional
dances in countries as far apart as Spain and Rumania are still
performed by teams looking somewhat similar to English Morris
dancers. A theory that Morris dancing originated as a pagan rite
possibly sprang from the disapproval of such revelry by Puritans in
the 16th and 17th centuries, but there is no evidence to support it.
The earliest references are
sparse, but show that something called ‘Morris’ was performed at the
courts of kings and nobles, and as part of royal and civic
processions. Rampant inflation in Henry VIII’s reign seems to have
put an end to such entertainments, and Morris is found in the 17th
century in villages as entertainment at ‘Church Ales’ (the church
fetes of the time), and sometimes in stage plays – Shakespeare’s
colleague Will Kemp famously danced from London to Norwich in nine
days, but this publicity stunt seems to have been a last attempt to
rekindle the dance’s popularity. The triumph of Puritanism after the
Civil War quelled such festivities, and over the succeeding
centuries Morris survived in only a few villages or was performed by
groups of dancers travelling to cities to dance for what monies they
could collect.
When ‘discovered’ by folk
music researchers around 1900, Morris had developed distinct
regional variations, and these are the dances upon which modern
teams base their repertoires. The style most familiar to the general
public, the team of six dancers with bells around their legs and
handkerchiefs in their hands, is called ‘Cotswold Morris’, having
survived principally in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. A wilder
style, now called ‘Border Morris’, was found in the counties on the
English side of the border with Wales, involving simple stepping and
vigorous stick-clashing by teams wearing a simple costume of
rag-decorated clothes but often faces blackened as a ritual
disguise. In Lancashire and Cheshire the dances were processions,
very suited to the industrial towns, and were often performed in
clogs. This style is known as ‘North-West Morris’. And an East
Anglian style has been recreated from the memories of former
dancers, a style whose basic figures are very similar to those of
country dancing, performed in teams in which at least one dancer is
a man dressed as a woman, known as a ‘Molly’ – thus, the style is
called ‘Molly dancing’.
And the term ‘Morris’ broadly
used also covers the sword dances found in the North-East. In
Yorkshire a dance style had survived which links eight dancers
holding inflexible ‘swords’, over and under which they twist and
turn, and in Durham and Northumberland teams of five danced using
flexible ‘rapper swords’ (thought to have originated as implements
for cleaning pit ponies’ hides). These two traditions are known
respectively as ‘Longsword’ and ‘Rapper’ dancing.
Within each of these regional
styles there are multiple local variants, and there are also
‘one-offs’ which do not resemble any of the above – the Abbot’s
Bromley Horn Dance in Staffordshire, the Britannia Coconut Dancers
in Lancashire, the Great Wishford Faggot Dance in Wiltshire. It’s a
rich and strange world, but is part of the modern world, open to
anybody who wishes to take part. Those exotic dancers you see at the
weekend are in everyday work during the week – in teaching, computer
work, business, shops, office work, bringing up their children. They
all had to learn dancing – why not have a go?
Find out more about this
mysterious tradition, make costumes, clash sticks, jingle those
bells – have fun!
|
