Morris dance
A
morris dance is a form of folk
dance.
|
Cotswold morris with handkerchiefs |
There are English records mentioning the morris dance dating back to
1448, though dances with similar names and some similar features are mentioned in
Renaissance documents in
France,
Italy, and
Spain. The origins of the term are uncertain, but one of the most widely accepted theories is that the term was "
moorish dance" and "Moresco" (in Spain), which was gradually corrupted to "morris dance". Another, perhaps simpler, explanation is that "Morris" comes from the Latin "Mores", meaning "a custom". This is consistent with the word (with various archaic spellings) sometimes being used to describe some other folk customs such as folk plays.
[Angelfire, folk]In the modern day, it is commonly thought of as a uniquely
English activity, although there are around 150 Morris teams in the United States. Expatriates form a larger part of the morris tradition in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Hong Kong, and there are isolated groups in other countries, for example that in
Utrecht, Netherlands.
"Morris" is frequently capitalized (and frequently not), but is not in this context a proper noun.
Before the
English Civil War, the working
peasantry often took part in Morris dances, especially at
Whitsun. In
1600 the
Shakespearean actor
William Kempe famously morris danced from
London to
Norwich, an event chronicled in his
Nine Days Wonder (1600). The
Puritan government of
Oliver Cromwell, however, suppressed Whitsun Ales and other such festivities. When the crown was restored by
Charles II, the springtime festivals were restored. In particular, Whitsun Ales came to be celebrated on
Whitsunday, as the date coincided with the birthday of Charles II.
Morris dancing continued in popularity until the
industrial revolution and its accompanying drastic social change. Four current teams claim a continuous lineage of tradition within their village:
Abingdon kept going by the Hemmings Family
[Hemmings tradition],
Bampton,
Headington Quarry and
Chipping Campden. Other villages have revived their own traditions, and hundreds of other teams across the globe have adopted (and adapted) these traditions, or have created their own styles from the basic building blocks of morris stepping and figures.
Several English folklorists were responsible for recording and reviving the tradition in the early 20th century, often from a bare handful of surviving members of mid-19th-century village sides (teams). Among these, the most notable are
Cecil Sharp,
Maud Karpeles, and
Mary Neal.
Boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the signal starting point for the morris revival.
Cecil Sharp was visiting at a friend's house in Headington, near
Oxford, when the
Headington Quarry morris side arrived to perform. Sharp was intrigued by the music and collected several tunes from the side's musician,
William Kimber; not until about a decade later, however, did he begin collecting the dances, spurred and at first assisted by
Mary Neal, a founder of the
Esperance Club (a dressmaking cooperative and club for young working women in
London), and
Herbert MacIlwaine, musical director of the Esperance Club. Neal was looking for dances for her girls to perform, and so the first revival performance was by young women in London.
In the first few decades of the
20th century, several new men's sides were formed, and in
1934 the
Morris Ring was founded by six revival sides. In the
1960s and especially the
1970s, there was an explosion of new dance teams, many of them women's or mixed sides. At the time, there was often heated debate over the propriety and even legitimacy of women dancing the morris, though this had largely subsided by the end of the 20th century.
Partly because women's and mixed sides were (and still are) not eligible for full membership of the
Morris Ring, two other national (and international) bodies were formed, the
Morris Federation and
Open Morris. All three bodies still exist, providing communication, advice, insurance,
instructionals (teaching sessions) and social and dancing opportunities to their members. The three bodies cooperate on some issues, while maintaining their distinct identities.
Today, there are three predominant styles of morris dancing, and different dances or
traditions within each style named after their region of origin.
*
Cotswold morris: dances from an area mostly in
Gloucestershire and
Oxfordshire; an established
misnomer, since the
Cotswolds overlap this region only partially. Normally danced with handkerchiefs or sticks to embellish the hand movements.
*
North West morris: more military in style and often processional. Clogs are a characteristic feature of this style of dance.
*
Border Morris from the English-
Welsh border: a simpler, looser, more vigorous style, normally danced with blackened faces (or sometimes otherwise coloured, given the negative connotations for some of
blackface).
Lionel Bacon records Cotswold morris traditions from these villages:
Abingdon,
Adderbury,
Ascot-under-Wychwood,
Badby,
Bampton,
Bidford,
Bledington,
Brackley,
Bucknell,
Chipping Campden,
Ducklington,
Eynsham,
Headington Quarry,
Hinton-in-the-Hedges,
Ilmington,
Kirtlington,
Leafield ("Field Town"),
Longborough,
Oddington,
Sherbourne,
Stanton Harcourt, and
Wheatley. Bacon also lists the tradition from
Lichfield, which is Cotswold-like despite that city's distance from the Cotswold morris area; the authenticity of this tradition has been questioned. Other dances listed by Bacon include border morris dances from
Brimfield,
Bromsberrow Heath,
Evesham,
Leominster,
Much Wenlock,
Pershore,
Upton-on-Severn,
Upton Snodsbury, and
White Ladies Aston, and miscellaneous non-Cotswold, non-border dances from
Steeple Claydon and
Winster. There are a number of traditions which have been invented since the mid twentieth century, though few have been widely adopted. Examples are Broadwood, Duns Tew[
1], and Ousington-under-Wash in the Cotswold style, and Upper and Lower Penn in the Border style. In fact, for many of the "collected" traditions in Bacon, only sketchy information is available about the way they were danced in the nineteenth century, and they have been reconstructed to a degree that makes them largely twentieth century inventions as well. Some traditions have been reconstructed in several strikingly disparate ways; an example would be Adderbury, danced very differently by the
Adderbury Morris Men and the
Adderbury Village Morris.
Sometimes regarded as a type of morris, although by many of the performers themselves as a traditional dance form in its own right, is the
sword dance tradition, which includes both
Rapper Sword and
Long Sword traditions.
The English
mummers play occasionally involves morris or sword dances either incorporated as part of the play or performed at the same event.
Other forms include
Molly dance from
Cambridgeshire. Molly dance, which is associated with
Plough Monday, is a parodic form danced in work boots and with at least one Molly man dressed as a woman.
There is also
Hoodening which comes from East
Kent, and the
Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.
Music is traditionally provided by either a
pipe and tabor or a
fiddle. These are still used today, but the most common instrument is the
melodeon.
Accordions and
concertinas are also common, and other instruments are sometimes used.
Cotswold and Sword dancers are most often accompanied by a single player, but Northwest and Border sides often have a band, usually including a drum.
For Cotswold and (to a degree) Border dances, the tunes are traditional and specific: the name of the dance is often actually the name of the tune, and dances of the same name from different traditions will have slightly different tunes. For Northwest and Sword dancing there is less often a specific tune for a dance: the players may use several tunes, and will often change tunes during a dance.
Like many activities, morris dancing has a range of words and phrases that it uses in special ways.
Many participants will refer to the world of morris dancing as a whole as
the morris.
A morris troupe is usually referred to as a
side or a
team. As can be seen in preceding paragraphs, the two terms are interchangeable. (Despite the competitive connotation of both words, morris dancing is hardly ever competitive).
A
set (which can also be referred to as a
side) is a number of dancers in a particular arrangement for a dance. Most Cotswold morris dances are danced in a rectangular set of six dancers, and most Northwest dances in a rectangular set of eight; but there are many exceptions.
A
jig in morris dancing is a dance performed by one (or sometimes two) dancers, rather than by a set. Its music does not usually have the rhythm implied by the word
jig in contexts outside morris dancing.
The titles of officers will vary from side to side, but most sides have at least the following:
* The
squire is the leader of the side, who will speak for the side in public, will usually lead or
call the dances, and will often decide the programme for a performance.
* The
bagman is traditionally the keeper of the
bag - that is to say, the side's funds. Usually today the bagman acts as secretary (particularly bookings secretary) and there is often a treasurer separate from the bagman.
* The
foreman is the person who teaches and trains the dancers, and is responsible for the style and standard of the side's dancing.
Many sides have one or more
fools. A fool will usually be extravagantly dressed, and will be communicating directly with the audience, whether in speech or in mime. Often the fool will dance around and even through a dance without really being a part of it.
Many sides also have a
beast: a dancer in a costume which is made to look like a real or mythical animal. Beasts mainly interact with the audience, particularly children. In some groups this dancer is called the
hobby.
A tradition in Cotswold morris is a collection of dances which come from a particular area and have something in common: usually the particular steps, the arm movements, and the figures danced.
Most Cotswold dances alternate
common figures (or just
figures) with a
distinctive figure (or
chorus). The common figures are common to all (or some) dances in the
tradition; the distinctive figure distinguishes that dance from other dances in the tradition. Sometimes, (particularly in
corner dances) the chorus is not identical each time it comes in a dance, but has its own sequence of forms specific to the tradition; nevertheless something about the way the chorus is danced will distinguish that dance from other dances. Frequently several traditions will have essentially the same dance, where the name, tune, and distinctive figure are the same or similar, but each tradition uses its own common figures and style of dancing.
An
Ale, particularly in North America, is a gathering of different morris teams, often for several days or a weekend. Traditionally, ales involve extensive tours of public dancing, along with private social activities among the gathered team members. Most ales are regional, but sides have been known to cross continents or oceans to participate. In Britain the term more often denotes an evening party with informal morris in scratch teams.
The dance may have given name to the board games
three men's morris,
six men's morris and
nine men's morris.
Erasmus Grasser, a German sculptor, created 16 realistic animated wood figures in the late 15th century called the
morris dancers.
*
List of morris dance sides
* Bacon, Lionel 1974
A Handbook of Morris Dances. Published by The morris Ring
* Michael Heaney, "The Earliest Reference to the Morris Dance?", Folk Music Journal 8.4, 2004, 513-515
*
The Morris Book, a history of morris dancing by Cecil J. Sharp, from
Project Gutenberg*
The Morrisdancing Page (links to current morris sides and organizations)
*
Morris Dancing FAQs, a database of morris-related information
*
The Origins of Morris, by Chris Farr (Dartington Morris Men)
*
The English Folk Dance and Song Society at Cecil Sharp House, London
*
iPod video of Morris Dancers at Sweeps Festival Rochester 1997
