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TABLE Of CONTENTS

Douglas Kennedy bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull middot bullbull middotbull pp 1-2

Opening Comments amp General News bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull pp 3-6

Cartoon The Moon in Morto nsfield Ke ll y Loftus bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull middot bullbullbull pp 7

The Nex t Generation of Morr is

Who Sh o u l d Dance The Morr is by Roy Dommett bull bull pp 8- 12

Wh y Do They Do It A Survey by Lynn Noal amp John Kraniak bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull pp 13- 17

Editors Epilogue bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull middot pp 1 8

Mossybacks Sign fre e -Agent Roger Ne at e bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbull pp 19

Rec ruiting Comments from Readers bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbullbull pp 20

Team News bull bullbullbullbullbullbull bull bullbullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullmiddot pp21 - 25

Ameri can Morris Newsletter is p ublished thr e e times a year in March i Apnl Ju ly Augu s t and Nov emberDecember Subscription rates are S600 year f or an individual o r at a bulk rate of $5 00copy f o r a mini mum of SUI c opies mail ed to t he s amead dre s s Overseas subsr ibers ao~OO Al l checks should be i n O S A currency mad e payab le to and ma iled t o Amercian Morr i s News le tte r co James C Brickwedde 31 01 11th Ave Sou th Hi nne apolis MN 55407 (612) 721-8750

Editor of the newslet ter is James C Brickwedde Production As s is t ant is Ka y Lara Schoenwetter Reg iona l edi t o rs i nclude J ohn Dexter (NY ) J oce l yn Reynolds (CA) and Ken Smit h (WA) Thanks to John Cavanaugh and Carole Br oad f o r the use o f their computer Masthead and logo design s are by Barbara Pre nt ice- O Rourke of Bampton Eng l and

cflMERIC-Ati MORRIS crtEWSliTTER ggggggggggg ~

Vol ume 12 Number 1

Thi s issue i s ded i c ated in memory of Doug las N Kennedy O BE

1894-1 98 8

On J anuary 7 1988 Douglas Kennedy d ied at the a ge o f 94 His ro le 1n the field of morris English and Americ an dancing will l ong be felt Amo ng his l i s t o f hon ors in l i f e was member of Cec i l Sharp s demonstratio n side [rom 1911 - 1914 first Nat iona l Directo r o f the English Polk Dance Society from 19 24- 1 961 and third Sq ui r e o f t h Morris Ring from 1939-1947 He assembled and pub l ished the Communil Dance Manuals f amiliar to al l country dancers He collec ted and inLr oduced to Engand the Ameri c an Square dance More sign ific a nt t o us here in Ameri c a he helped to teach and guide a whole g e n e rati on of Morris dancer s t hro ugh his annua l vi sits to Pinewo ods folk Danc e Camp

His trips to Nort h Ame r i c a began i n 19 29 with a tour of the Ca nad ian Pr ovinces and Ea st Coa st US c it ies by t he Demon s tra t ion Team or EPDSS The tri p c u lmi nated with him teaching at the Amhers t Su mmer Camp wh i c h wa s Lo move year s later to Pinewood s Cam p ~n Pl ymou th He co ntinUed to come a n nua l ly to th e Summer Camp s unti l 193 9 t o teach and be the gue sl of CDS S pat r on He le n Sto rr ow f oll owi ng World War II the j our nies t o Am e ri ca became infrequent Howeve r t he re a r e many mor r is dancers tod a y still a c tive who ca n remembe r his in f l uence as a teacher

My first exposure to Douglas was through his writings A small book ~it led England Dances descri b ed the movement q ualities involved in dancing the morri~the country dance He adapted a word from the field of poetry to describe the l ift and pulse integral to the dance The term is anac rusi s middot - the breath before the downbeat - and that much of t he morris a nd country dance occurred on th e anacrusis of the music rather than on the beat

Morris danc ing had begun to emphasize merely the beat It was through the wo rk of Do ug las Kennedy and Kenworthy Schofield among others who reinserted t he lift the life back into the morr is dance during the 1940s and 50s The c ombined grace and strength which is a hallmark o f Pinewoods Camp morris dancing still today can be traced to the strong teaching ideals of Kennedys visits

Like many Americ a n mo rris dancers traveling in the last d ecade in England I had the pleasure of meeting Doug la s at his home in Waldringfield East Suffolk The cottage was literally made from the hull of a ship overturned to create a roof structure For much of a day I interviewed Douglas about his years with Ceci l Sharp his travels in America and his perspectives on the changing nature of the dance

During that interview Douglas would regularly qualify a recollecti o n by claiming faulty memory He would then proceed to bring to life the past in very minute detai l and be able to recollect the emotion and physical feel of dance movements That day went by all too q uick ly and its images will survive many years in my memory

The passing of Douglas Kennedy marks the end of a generation linke d to the pre-war years of the Cecil Sharps Claud Wrights and Ma ry Neals when morris dancing was brought back from the edge of extinction Douglas Kennedy was an extraordinary man He will always maintain an influencial position in the history of modern morris dancing

The editors of American Morris Newsletter extend their deepest sympathies to his wife Elizabeth Kennedy

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2

OPEN I NG COMMENTS

In this issue AMN cont inues to l ook i n t o the q ue st ion of f rom whe re the next gen e ration o f morri s dancers wi ll c ome As part of t his effor t Lynn Noa l a nd J o h n Kr aniak o f Ma dison have c o n t ri bu ted an artic le Repr ints from Seat tl es Morning Star a nd of Eng l i sh morris sc ho lar Roy Dommett add furth er perspec t1ve~

The 1988 annua l direc tor y is inC luded as an insert wi th this i ss ue 1 51 sides are l i sted t his ye a r c ompared to t h e 144 side s note d the previ ous ye a r Th e r umo r mil l has i t tha t at leas t 3 o the r sides ar e in variou s stages o f fo r ma t ion p r oving tha t morris still is growi ng and spread in g acros s the con tinent

An additi on to Our pages i s t he tal e nt of Ke ll y Loftus from Houston TX who h as do nat ed Thank you Kathy

a c o mic s tr i p se rie s to AMN --shy

[or this y ear s issues

En j oy the reading and welcome to Spring

HA PPY 50TH ANNIVE RS ARY

Berea Coun t ry Dancers

HAP PY--shy 10TH--shy ANNIVERSARY

Highland Mary Lord Hill Morris Me n Mar s h I sland Morris

Ha Pe nny Morri s Spruc e Hill Morris

Al berma r le Morris Men Oak Apple Morris

AMN REGI ON AL EDITORS

In an effort to hel p spread the work load broad en the talen t pool of wr iter s artists and con t ribu to rs and to d eve lop a more powerf ul hea r ing aid as t o local concerns r ha ve b egun t o ask c e rta in dancers around to continent t o serv e as Re g i onal Ed itors I am pleased to present three o f those peopl e beginning with this issue The ir ideas already have been r e f lected in the page s of past issues as they have offered ideas andor articles for sometime now In that sense this announcement is formal izi ng an existing working relati onship

Their job is to he lp generate material either by writing articles themselves or by motivating local tal ent to help assess local concerns so liMN can plan i ssues to accommodate those need s and to help AMN be creative and in touch with dancers AMN has grown a l ot

3

but if it is going to maintain freshness and qualti y t hen this editor need s help

Others are s ure to be added to this list but for n ow AMN welcomes th e assistance of Ken Smith (Mossyback Morris Men Ten--Pen ny Bit Rapper and the Northwest Provisional Morris Se attle WA ) Joceyl n Reynolds (Berkeley Morris and Wild Ro se Sword Berkeley CAl and John Dexter (Bouwe rie Boys New York City)

BEST WISHES

On beh a lf of all involved with American Morris Newsletter I wish to e xtend our sincerest s ympathy to AMN Production Assi s ta n t Kay Sch oenwet t er on the recent death of hertather and simultaneousl y our best wishes o n her pending April marriage to Rudd Rayfield Your he lp Kay is much appreciated and may you have the best of luck in the future

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

found t he last issue o f AMN only moderately interest ing I keep hoping that you will start publishing dances and music tha t is hard in fo rmat ion rather that article s that are long on opinion and short on fac t s Im certain Im not alone i n my desire for t his

For exampl e the Mr Softe e d ance is well known in reputation but not detail How is i s do ne How about some articles o n new dan c es and tunes

So to prime the pot Im encl os ing two dance s weve written for our team (Winfrey Belles Morris) Pe rhaps yo u can ge t others to contribute new dances from their t ea ms as well

By t he wa y Id like t o correspond with any other teams doing Bampton Can you publish this reque s t for me Thank s

Sincerel y Carl Dreher 640 9 Richmon d Ave Dallas TX 75214

(ED NOTE AMN never o b jects to anyone speaking their opinion about what they re~ or dont read o n the pages of this news letter What I wish to applaud Mr Dreher on is that he did some thing about his idea by submitting material The dances submitt e d will b e reprinted in the Summer issue of AMN If you have dance material your side would like to middotshare send ~in for publication As for Mr Sottee see AMN Vol IV No 4Jan 1981 for a description or contact Kingsessing Morris Men who created the dance at the Marlboro Ale in 1979)

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4

FOLLOW-UP

(EDN OTE The followi ng l e t ter wa s rece i ved f rom Paul Kerlee who a u t ho r e d the article Morris f or Kids the Hi l l s i de Stor y ( AMN Vo l 11 No 3 ) I

Dear JB

Apar t f r om t he k i d s I a l r eady sent I c ou l d add one c omment though r now c ant fi nd t h e le t t e r Tim Perlstein i n his note which I exc erpted f or y ou di d s ay t hat in the yea r he was in 5 lh grade other boys r eferred t o mo r r iser s a s the middotpa jama p e ople - That was an unusual ye a r - - only a smal l but f~erce J y l oya l g r oup at boys continued and pervailed in every kind o f schoo l activ i ty

Usually as i s the case this year almost everyone continues eager l y no hint of stigma or negative peer pres sure

It was my influence tha t brought morris to our Ortf convention f our years ago -- Th ames Va l ley Morris and Tony Barrand The teacher you mentioned from Missouri (ED Sylv i a Fo rbes) became exc i ted wen t home and joined a mor ris t eam and began wi t h kids i mmediately

Or ff teachers es pecial ly have a heightene d a war e nes s and appreciation now of ri t ua l dance I t was again e mphasize d a t our Boston confe rence l a st year

Si ncere ly Pa ul Kerlee

WESTERLY MORRIS MEN HAVE A COLOR PRI NT ONPOSTERs - --SYGeor ge utter

Th e Wester l y Mor ris Men are l uc ky beca use t hey bave a news pa per pub l i sher on the team Now they have a c ol or pr i n t on their b l ank pos te rs A neig hbor i ng p a per wh ich use s a l ot o f colo r p i ctur es had a photo of the tea m publi s hed one d a y

Ba gman George Utte r c a l led up the pub l ishe r of the o t her paper and asked h i m ( or the separati on negat i v e s used to prod uce the c o l o r p ic ture Then the four neg a tives we r e used to prin t i n the middl e o f a s hee t of pape r Four nega tive s red ye llow bl ue a nd black s ug gested p a pe r si ze l egal

When e ver they wa n t to pr in t a specia l poster they se t t ype and art shywo r k ar ou nd t he col or pic t ur e (or y ou c an hand lette r t he wo rd s) a nd t he n r un the prepr i nt e d c olo r po s te r blanks middot th r ough a copy mach ine This neces s i t ate s t ha t t he pre- prin t ed bl ank s b e o n a pa per s to c k us able i n a photoco py ma chine

So wa it until your loca l ne wspaper pri n t s a g o od color s h o t o f your group in action and the n get th e sepa r ation negat i v es I f you know a photographer on t he paper you mi g ht get his hel p he wo uld sub mit to his editor a p r int for t h e paper which i s also go od for t he poster

5

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mountain Folk Festival -- Cotswold Morris dance workshops will be led by G Wayne Allen over the weekend of April 7-9 1988 Festival wi ll be held at Berea College KY Admi ssion is $500 for the entire weekend For information contact J o hn Ramsay Box 287 Berea KY 40 4 04 (606)986-9341 x 5143

Ken tucky Summer Dan ce School -- June 26-Jul y 21988 at Berea KY Featur~ng wo rkshops--In--carTand Dancing along with other f orms of Eng lish Country and American dan c ing S Forbes is the Garland workshop leader For informatio n write Kemtu ck y Heri tage Institute clo Don Coff ey 1581 Bond s Mill Rd Lawren ceburg KY 40342

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y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

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Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

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of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

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TABLE Of CONTENTS

Douglas Kennedy bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull middot bullbull middotbull pp 1-2

Opening Comments amp General News bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull pp 3-6

Cartoon The Moon in Morto nsfield Ke ll y Loftus bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull middot bullbullbull pp 7

The Nex t Generation of Morr is

Who Sh o u l d Dance The Morr is by Roy Dommett bull bull pp 8- 12

Wh y Do They Do It A Survey by Lynn Noal amp John Kraniak bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bull bull pp 13- 17

Editors Epilogue bull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull middot pp 1 8

Mossybacks Sign fre e -Agent Roger Ne at e bullbullbullbullbull bullbullbull pp 19

Rec ruiting Comments from Readers bullbullbullbullbullbull bullbullbull pp 20

Team News bull bullbullbullbullbullbull bull bullbullbull bullbull bullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbullbull bullbullbullmiddot pp21 - 25

Ameri can Morris Newsletter is p ublished thr e e times a year in March i Apnl Ju ly Augu s t and Nov emberDecember Subscription rates are S600 year f or an individual o r at a bulk rate of $5 00copy f o r a mini mum of SUI c opies mail ed to t he s amead dre s s Overseas subsr ibers ao~OO Al l checks should be i n O S A currency mad e payab le to and ma iled t o Amercian Morr i s News le tte r co James C Brickwedde 31 01 11th Ave Sou th Hi nne apolis MN 55407 (612) 721-8750

Editor of the newslet ter is James C Brickwedde Production As s is t ant is Ka y Lara Schoenwetter Reg iona l edi t o rs i nclude J ohn Dexter (NY ) J oce l yn Reynolds (CA) and Ken Smit h (WA) Thanks to John Cavanaugh and Carole Br oad f o r the use o f their computer Masthead and logo design s are by Barbara Pre nt ice- O Rourke of Bampton Eng l and

cflMERIC-Ati MORRIS crtEWSliTTER ggggggggggg ~

Vol ume 12 Number 1

Thi s issue i s ded i c ated in memory of Doug las N Kennedy O BE

1894-1 98 8

On J anuary 7 1988 Douglas Kennedy d ied at the a ge o f 94 His ro le 1n the field of morris English and Americ an dancing will l ong be felt Amo ng his l i s t o f hon ors in l i f e was member of Cec i l Sharp s demonstratio n side [rom 1911 - 1914 first Nat iona l Directo r o f the English Polk Dance Society from 19 24- 1 961 and third Sq ui r e o f t h Morris Ring from 1939-1947 He assembled and pub l ished the Communil Dance Manuals f amiliar to al l country dancers He collec ted and inLr oduced to Engand the Ameri c an Square dance More sign ific a nt t o us here in Ameri c a he helped to teach and guide a whole g e n e rati on of Morris dancer s t hro ugh his annua l vi sits to Pinewo ods folk Danc e Camp

His trips to Nort h Ame r i c a began i n 19 29 with a tour of the Ca nad ian Pr ovinces and Ea st Coa st US c it ies by t he Demon s tra t ion Team or EPDSS The tri p c u lmi nated with him teaching at the Amhers t Su mmer Camp wh i c h wa s Lo move year s later to Pinewood s Cam p ~n Pl ymou th He co ntinUed to come a n nua l ly to th e Summer Camp s unti l 193 9 t o teach and be the gue sl of CDS S pat r on He le n Sto rr ow f oll owi ng World War II the j our nies t o Am e ri ca became infrequent Howeve r t he re a r e many mor r is dancers tod a y still a c tive who ca n remembe r his in f l uence as a teacher

My first exposure to Douglas was through his writings A small book ~it led England Dances descri b ed the movement q ualities involved in dancing the morri~the country dance He adapted a word from the field of poetry to describe the l ift and pulse integral to the dance The term is anac rusi s middot - the breath before the downbeat - and that much of t he morris a nd country dance occurred on th e anacrusis of the music rather than on the beat

Morris danc ing had begun to emphasize merely the beat It was through the wo rk of Do ug las Kennedy and Kenworthy Schofield among others who reinserted t he lift the life back into the morr is dance during the 1940s and 50s The c ombined grace and strength which is a hallmark o f Pinewoods Camp morris dancing still today can be traced to the strong teaching ideals of Kennedys visits

Like many Americ a n mo rris dancers traveling in the last d ecade in England I had the pleasure of meeting Doug la s at his home in Waldringfield East Suffolk The cottage was literally made from the hull of a ship overturned to create a roof structure For much of a day I interviewed Douglas about his years with Ceci l Sharp his travels in America and his perspectives on the changing nature of the dance

During that interview Douglas would regularly qualify a recollecti o n by claiming faulty memory He would then proceed to bring to life the past in very minute detai l and be able to recollect the emotion and physical feel of dance movements That day went by all too q uick ly and its images will survive many years in my memory

The passing of Douglas Kennedy marks the end of a generation linke d to the pre-war years of the Cecil Sharps Claud Wrights and Ma ry Neals when morris dancing was brought back from the edge of extinction Douglas Kennedy was an extraordinary man He will always maintain an influencial position in the history of modern morris dancing

The editors of American Morris Newsletter extend their deepest sympathies to his wife Elizabeth Kennedy

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OPEN I NG COMMENTS

In this issue AMN cont inues to l ook i n t o the q ue st ion of f rom whe re the next gen e ration o f morri s dancers wi ll c ome As part of t his effor t Lynn Noa l a nd J o h n Kr aniak o f Ma dison have c o n t ri bu ted an artic le Repr ints from Seat tl es Morning Star a nd of Eng l i sh morris sc ho lar Roy Dommett add furth er perspec t1ve~

The 1988 annua l direc tor y is inC luded as an insert wi th this i ss ue 1 51 sides are l i sted t his ye a r c ompared to t h e 144 side s note d the previ ous ye a r Th e r umo r mil l has i t tha t at leas t 3 o the r sides ar e in variou s stages o f fo r ma t ion p r oving tha t morris still is growi ng and spread in g acros s the con tinent

An additi on to Our pages i s t he tal e nt of Ke ll y Loftus from Houston TX who h as do nat ed Thank you Kathy

a c o mic s tr i p se rie s to AMN --shy

[or this y ear s issues

En j oy the reading and welcome to Spring

HA PPY 50TH ANNIVE RS ARY

Berea Coun t ry Dancers

HAP PY--shy 10TH--shy ANNIVERSARY

Highland Mary Lord Hill Morris Me n Mar s h I sland Morris

Ha Pe nny Morri s Spruc e Hill Morris

Al berma r le Morris Men Oak Apple Morris

AMN REGI ON AL EDITORS

In an effort to hel p spread the work load broad en the talen t pool of wr iter s artists and con t ribu to rs and to d eve lop a more powerf ul hea r ing aid as t o local concerns r ha ve b egun t o ask c e rta in dancers around to continent t o serv e as Re g i onal Ed itors I am pleased to present three o f those peopl e beginning with this issue The ir ideas already have been r e f lected in the page s of past issues as they have offered ideas andor articles for sometime now In that sense this announcement is formal izi ng an existing working relati onship

Their job is to he lp generate material either by writing articles themselves or by motivating local tal ent to help assess local concerns so liMN can plan i ssues to accommodate those need s and to help AMN be creative and in touch with dancers AMN has grown a l ot

3

but if it is going to maintain freshness and qualti y t hen this editor need s help

Others are s ure to be added to this list but for n ow AMN welcomes th e assistance of Ken Smith (Mossyback Morris Men Ten--Pen ny Bit Rapper and the Northwest Provisional Morris Se attle WA ) Joceyl n Reynolds (Berkeley Morris and Wild Ro se Sword Berkeley CAl and John Dexter (Bouwe rie Boys New York City)

BEST WISHES

On beh a lf of all involved with American Morris Newsletter I wish to e xtend our sincerest s ympathy to AMN Production Assi s ta n t Kay Sch oenwet t er on the recent death of hertather and simultaneousl y our best wishes o n her pending April marriage to Rudd Rayfield Your he lp Kay is much appreciated and may you have the best of luck in the future

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

found t he last issue o f AMN only moderately interest ing I keep hoping that you will start publishing dances and music tha t is hard in fo rmat ion rather that article s that are long on opinion and short on fac t s Im certain Im not alone i n my desire for t his

For exampl e the Mr Softe e d ance is well known in reputation but not detail How is i s do ne How about some articles o n new dan c es and tunes

So to prime the pot Im encl os ing two dance s weve written for our team (Winfrey Belles Morris) Pe rhaps yo u can ge t others to contribute new dances from their t ea ms as well

By t he wa y Id like t o correspond with any other teams doing Bampton Can you publish this reque s t for me Thank s

Sincerel y Carl Dreher 640 9 Richmon d Ave Dallas TX 75214

(ED NOTE AMN never o b jects to anyone speaking their opinion about what they re~ or dont read o n the pages of this news letter What I wish to applaud Mr Dreher on is that he did some thing about his idea by submitting material The dances submitt e d will b e reprinted in the Summer issue of AMN If you have dance material your side would like to middotshare send ~in for publication As for Mr Sottee see AMN Vol IV No 4Jan 1981 for a description or contact Kingsessing Morris Men who created the dance at the Marlboro Ale in 1979)

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FOLLOW-UP

(EDN OTE The followi ng l e t ter wa s rece i ved f rom Paul Kerlee who a u t ho r e d the article Morris f or Kids the Hi l l s i de Stor y ( AMN Vo l 11 No 3 ) I

Dear JB

Apar t f r om t he k i d s I a l r eady sent I c ou l d add one c omment though r now c ant fi nd t h e le t t e r Tim Perlstein i n his note which I exc erpted f or y ou di d s ay t hat in the yea r he was in 5 lh grade other boys r eferred t o mo r r iser s a s the middotpa jama p e ople - That was an unusual ye a r - - only a smal l but f~erce J y l oya l g r oup at boys continued and pervailed in every kind o f schoo l activ i ty

Usually as i s the case this year almost everyone continues eager l y no hint of stigma or negative peer pres sure

It was my influence tha t brought morris to our Ortf convention f our years ago -- Th ames Va l ley Morris and Tony Barrand The teacher you mentioned from Missouri (ED Sylv i a Fo rbes) became exc i ted wen t home and joined a mor ris t eam and began wi t h kids i mmediately

Or ff teachers es pecial ly have a heightene d a war e nes s and appreciation now of ri t ua l dance I t was again e mphasize d a t our Boston confe rence l a st year

Si ncere ly Pa ul Kerlee

WESTERLY MORRIS MEN HAVE A COLOR PRI NT ONPOSTERs - --SYGeor ge utter

Th e Wester l y Mor ris Men are l uc ky beca use t hey bave a news pa per pub l i sher on the team Now they have a c ol or pr i n t on their b l ank pos te rs A neig hbor i ng p a per wh ich use s a l ot o f colo r p i ctur es had a photo of the tea m publi s hed one d a y

Ba gman George Utte r c a l led up the pub l ishe r of the o t her paper and asked h i m ( or the separati on negat i v e s used to prod uce the c o l o r p ic ture Then the four neg a tives we r e used to prin t i n the middl e o f a s hee t of pape r Four nega tive s red ye llow bl ue a nd black s ug gested p a pe r si ze l egal

When e ver they wa n t to pr in t a specia l poster they se t t ype and art shywo r k ar ou nd t he col or pic t ur e (or y ou c an hand lette r t he wo rd s) a nd t he n r un the prepr i nt e d c olo r po s te r blanks middot th r ough a copy mach ine This neces s i t ate s t ha t t he pre- prin t ed bl ank s b e o n a pa per s to c k us able i n a photoco py ma chine

So wa it until your loca l ne wspaper pri n t s a g o od color s h o t o f your group in action and the n get th e sepa r ation negat i v es I f you know a photographer on t he paper you mi g ht get his hel p he wo uld sub mit to his editor a p r int for t h e paper which i s also go od for t he poster

5

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mountain Folk Festival -- Cotswold Morris dance workshops will be led by G Wayne Allen over the weekend of April 7-9 1988 Festival wi ll be held at Berea College KY Admi ssion is $500 for the entire weekend For information contact J o hn Ramsay Box 287 Berea KY 40 4 04 (606)986-9341 x 5143

Ken tucky Summer Dan ce School -- June 26-Jul y 21988 at Berea KY Featur~ng wo rkshops--In--carTand Dancing along with other f orms of Eng lish Country and American dan c ing S Forbes is the Garland workshop leader For informatio n write Kemtu ck y Heri tage Institute clo Don Coff ey 1581 Bond s Mill Rd Lawren ceburg KY 40342

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y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

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Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

My first exposure to Douglas was through his writings A small book ~it led England Dances descri b ed the movement q ualities involved in dancing the morri~the country dance He adapted a word from the field of poetry to describe the l ift and pulse integral to the dance The term is anac rusi s middot - the breath before the downbeat - and that much of t he morris a nd country dance occurred on th e anacrusis of the music rather than on the beat

Morris danc ing had begun to emphasize merely the beat It was through the wo rk of Do ug las Kennedy and Kenworthy Schofield among others who reinserted t he lift the life back into the morr is dance during the 1940s and 50s The c ombined grace and strength which is a hallmark o f Pinewoods Camp morris dancing still today can be traced to the strong teaching ideals of Kennedys visits

Like many Americ a n mo rris dancers traveling in the last d ecade in England I had the pleasure of meeting Doug la s at his home in Waldringfield East Suffolk The cottage was literally made from the hull of a ship overturned to create a roof structure For much of a day I interviewed Douglas about his years with Ceci l Sharp his travels in America and his perspectives on the changing nature of the dance

During that interview Douglas would regularly qualify a recollecti o n by claiming faulty memory He would then proceed to bring to life the past in very minute detai l and be able to recollect the emotion and physical feel of dance movements That day went by all too q uick ly and its images will survive many years in my memory

The passing of Douglas Kennedy marks the end of a generation linke d to the pre-war years of the Cecil Sharps Claud Wrights and Ma ry Neals when morris dancing was brought back from the edge of extinction Douglas Kennedy was an extraordinary man He will always maintain an influencial position in the history of modern morris dancing

The editors of American Morris Newsletter extend their deepest sympathies to his wife Elizabeth Kennedy

gt ggg~ gggg -~

2

OPEN I NG COMMENTS

In this issue AMN cont inues to l ook i n t o the q ue st ion of f rom whe re the next gen e ration o f morri s dancers wi ll c ome As part of t his effor t Lynn Noa l a nd J o h n Kr aniak o f Ma dison have c o n t ri bu ted an artic le Repr ints from Seat tl es Morning Star a nd of Eng l i sh morris sc ho lar Roy Dommett add furth er perspec t1ve~

The 1988 annua l direc tor y is inC luded as an insert wi th this i ss ue 1 51 sides are l i sted t his ye a r c ompared to t h e 144 side s note d the previ ous ye a r Th e r umo r mil l has i t tha t at leas t 3 o the r sides ar e in variou s stages o f fo r ma t ion p r oving tha t morris still is growi ng and spread in g acros s the con tinent

An additi on to Our pages i s t he tal e nt of Ke ll y Loftus from Houston TX who h as do nat ed Thank you Kathy

a c o mic s tr i p se rie s to AMN --shy

[or this y ear s issues

En j oy the reading and welcome to Spring

HA PPY 50TH ANNIVE RS ARY

Berea Coun t ry Dancers

HAP PY--shy 10TH--shy ANNIVERSARY

Highland Mary Lord Hill Morris Me n Mar s h I sland Morris

Ha Pe nny Morri s Spruc e Hill Morris

Al berma r le Morris Men Oak Apple Morris

AMN REGI ON AL EDITORS

In an effort to hel p spread the work load broad en the talen t pool of wr iter s artists and con t ribu to rs and to d eve lop a more powerf ul hea r ing aid as t o local concerns r ha ve b egun t o ask c e rta in dancers around to continent t o serv e as Re g i onal Ed itors I am pleased to present three o f those peopl e beginning with this issue The ir ideas already have been r e f lected in the page s of past issues as they have offered ideas andor articles for sometime now In that sense this announcement is formal izi ng an existing working relati onship

Their job is to he lp generate material either by writing articles themselves or by motivating local tal ent to help assess local concerns so liMN can plan i ssues to accommodate those need s and to help AMN be creative and in touch with dancers AMN has grown a l ot

3

but if it is going to maintain freshness and qualti y t hen this editor need s help

Others are s ure to be added to this list but for n ow AMN welcomes th e assistance of Ken Smith (Mossyback Morris Men Ten--Pen ny Bit Rapper and the Northwest Provisional Morris Se attle WA ) Joceyl n Reynolds (Berkeley Morris and Wild Ro se Sword Berkeley CAl and John Dexter (Bouwe rie Boys New York City)

BEST WISHES

On beh a lf of all involved with American Morris Newsletter I wish to e xtend our sincerest s ympathy to AMN Production Assi s ta n t Kay Sch oenwet t er on the recent death of hertather and simultaneousl y our best wishes o n her pending April marriage to Rudd Rayfield Your he lp Kay is much appreciated and may you have the best of luck in the future

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

found t he last issue o f AMN only moderately interest ing I keep hoping that you will start publishing dances and music tha t is hard in fo rmat ion rather that article s that are long on opinion and short on fac t s Im certain Im not alone i n my desire for t his

For exampl e the Mr Softe e d ance is well known in reputation but not detail How is i s do ne How about some articles o n new dan c es and tunes

So to prime the pot Im encl os ing two dance s weve written for our team (Winfrey Belles Morris) Pe rhaps yo u can ge t others to contribute new dances from their t ea ms as well

By t he wa y Id like t o correspond with any other teams doing Bampton Can you publish this reque s t for me Thank s

Sincerel y Carl Dreher 640 9 Richmon d Ave Dallas TX 75214

(ED NOTE AMN never o b jects to anyone speaking their opinion about what they re~ or dont read o n the pages of this news letter What I wish to applaud Mr Dreher on is that he did some thing about his idea by submitting material The dances submitt e d will b e reprinted in the Summer issue of AMN If you have dance material your side would like to middotshare send ~in for publication As for Mr Sottee see AMN Vol IV No 4Jan 1981 for a description or contact Kingsessing Morris Men who created the dance at the Marlboro Ale in 1979)

gt gggg g ggQ ~

4

FOLLOW-UP

(EDN OTE The followi ng l e t ter wa s rece i ved f rom Paul Kerlee who a u t ho r e d the article Morris f or Kids the Hi l l s i de Stor y ( AMN Vo l 11 No 3 ) I

Dear JB

Apar t f r om t he k i d s I a l r eady sent I c ou l d add one c omment though r now c ant fi nd t h e le t t e r Tim Perlstein i n his note which I exc erpted f or y ou di d s ay t hat in the yea r he was in 5 lh grade other boys r eferred t o mo r r iser s a s the middotpa jama p e ople - That was an unusual ye a r - - only a smal l but f~erce J y l oya l g r oup at boys continued and pervailed in every kind o f schoo l activ i ty

Usually as i s the case this year almost everyone continues eager l y no hint of stigma or negative peer pres sure

It was my influence tha t brought morris to our Ortf convention f our years ago -- Th ames Va l ley Morris and Tony Barrand The teacher you mentioned from Missouri (ED Sylv i a Fo rbes) became exc i ted wen t home and joined a mor ris t eam and began wi t h kids i mmediately

Or ff teachers es pecial ly have a heightene d a war e nes s and appreciation now of ri t ua l dance I t was again e mphasize d a t our Boston confe rence l a st year

Si ncere ly Pa ul Kerlee

WESTERLY MORRIS MEN HAVE A COLOR PRI NT ONPOSTERs - --SYGeor ge utter

Th e Wester l y Mor ris Men are l uc ky beca use t hey bave a news pa per pub l i sher on the team Now they have a c ol or pr i n t on their b l ank pos te rs A neig hbor i ng p a per wh ich use s a l ot o f colo r p i ctur es had a photo of the tea m publi s hed one d a y

Ba gman George Utte r c a l led up the pub l ishe r of the o t her paper and asked h i m ( or the separati on negat i v e s used to prod uce the c o l o r p ic ture Then the four neg a tives we r e used to prin t i n the middl e o f a s hee t of pape r Four nega tive s red ye llow bl ue a nd black s ug gested p a pe r si ze l egal

When e ver they wa n t to pr in t a specia l poster they se t t ype and art shywo r k ar ou nd t he col or pic t ur e (or y ou c an hand lette r t he wo rd s) a nd t he n r un the prepr i nt e d c olo r po s te r blanks middot th r ough a copy mach ine This neces s i t ate s t ha t t he pre- prin t ed bl ank s b e o n a pa per s to c k us able i n a photoco py ma chine

So wa it until your loca l ne wspaper pri n t s a g o od color s h o t o f your group in action and the n get th e sepa r ation negat i v es I f you know a photographer on t he paper you mi g ht get his hel p he wo uld sub mit to his editor a p r int for t h e paper which i s also go od for t he poster

5

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mountain Folk Festival -- Cotswold Morris dance workshops will be led by G Wayne Allen over the weekend of April 7-9 1988 Festival wi ll be held at Berea College KY Admi ssion is $500 for the entire weekend For information contact J o hn Ramsay Box 287 Berea KY 40 4 04 (606)986-9341 x 5143

Ken tucky Summer Dan ce School -- June 26-Jul y 21988 at Berea KY Featur~ng wo rkshops--In--carTand Dancing along with other f orms of Eng lish Country and American dan c ing S Forbes is the Garland workshop leader For informatio n write Kemtu ck y Heri tage Institute clo Don Coff ey 1581 Bond s Mill Rd Lawren ceburg KY 40342

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y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

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Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

but if it is going to maintain freshness and qualti y t hen this editor need s help

Others are s ure to be added to this list but for n ow AMN welcomes th e assistance of Ken Smith (Mossyback Morris Men Ten--Pen ny Bit Rapper and the Northwest Provisional Morris Se attle WA ) Joceyl n Reynolds (Berkeley Morris and Wild Ro se Sword Berkeley CAl and John Dexter (Bouwe rie Boys New York City)

BEST WISHES

On beh a lf of all involved with American Morris Newsletter I wish to e xtend our sincerest s ympathy to AMN Production Assi s ta n t Kay Sch oenwet t er on the recent death of hertather and simultaneousl y our best wishes o n her pending April marriage to Rudd Rayfield Your he lp Kay is much appreciated and may you have the best of luck in the future

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

found t he last issue o f AMN only moderately interest ing I keep hoping that you will start publishing dances and music tha t is hard in fo rmat ion rather that article s that are long on opinion and short on fac t s Im certain Im not alone i n my desire for t his

For exampl e the Mr Softe e d ance is well known in reputation but not detail How is i s do ne How about some articles o n new dan c es and tunes

So to prime the pot Im encl os ing two dance s weve written for our team (Winfrey Belles Morris) Pe rhaps yo u can ge t others to contribute new dances from their t ea ms as well

By t he wa y Id like t o correspond with any other teams doing Bampton Can you publish this reque s t for me Thank s

Sincerel y Carl Dreher 640 9 Richmon d Ave Dallas TX 75214

(ED NOTE AMN never o b jects to anyone speaking their opinion about what they re~ or dont read o n the pages of this news letter What I wish to applaud Mr Dreher on is that he did some thing about his idea by submitting material The dances submitt e d will b e reprinted in the Summer issue of AMN If you have dance material your side would like to middotshare send ~in for publication As for Mr Sottee see AMN Vol IV No 4Jan 1981 for a description or contact Kingsessing Morris Men who created the dance at the Marlboro Ale in 1979)

gt gggg g ggQ ~

4

FOLLOW-UP

(EDN OTE The followi ng l e t ter wa s rece i ved f rom Paul Kerlee who a u t ho r e d the article Morris f or Kids the Hi l l s i de Stor y ( AMN Vo l 11 No 3 ) I

Dear JB

Apar t f r om t he k i d s I a l r eady sent I c ou l d add one c omment though r now c ant fi nd t h e le t t e r Tim Perlstein i n his note which I exc erpted f or y ou di d s ay t hat in the yea r he was in 5 lh grade other boys r eferred t o mo r r iser s a s the middotpa jama p e ople - That was an unusual ye a r - - only a smal l but f~erce J y l oya l g r oup at boys continued and pervailed in every kind o f schoo l activ i ty

Usually as i s the case this year almost everyone continues eager l y no hint of stigma or negative peer pres sure

It was my influence tha t brought morris to our Ortf convention f our years ago -- Th ames Va l ley Morris and Tony Barrand The teacher you mentioned from Missouri (ED Sylv i a Fo rbes) became exc i ted wen t home and joined a mor ris t eam and began wi t h kids i mmediately

Or ff teachers es pecial ly have a heightene d a war e nes s and appreciation now of ri t ua l dance I t was again e mphasize d a t our Boston confe rence l a st year

Si ncere ly Pa ul Kerlee

WESTERLY MORRIS MEN HAVE A COLOR PRI NT ONPOSTERs - --SYGeor ge utter

Th e Wester l y Mor ris Men are l uc ky beca use t hey bave a news pa per pub l i sher on the team Now they have a c ol or pr i n t on their b l ank pos te rs A neig hbor i ng p a per wh ich use s a l ot o f colo r p i ctur es had a photo of the tea m publi s hed one d a y

Ba gman George Utte r c a l led up the pub l ishe r of the o t her paper and asked h i m ( or the separati on negat i v e s used to prod uce the c o l o r p ic ture Then the four neg a tives we r e used to prin t i n the middl e o f a s hee t of pape r Four nega tive s red ye llow bl ue a nd black s ug gested p a pe r si ze l egal

When e ver they wa n t to pr in t a specia l poster they se t t ype and art shywo r k ar ou nd t he col or pic t ur e (or y ou c an hand lette r t he wo rd s) a nd t he n r un the prepr i nt e d c olo r po s te r blanks middot th r ough a copy mach ine This neces s i t ate s t ha t t he pre- prin t ed bl ank s b e o n a pa per s to c k us able i n a photoco py ma chine

So wa it until your loca l ne wspaper pri n t s a g o od color s h o t o f your group in action and the n get th e sepa r ation negat i v es I f you know a photographer on t he paper you mi g ht get his hel p he wo uld sub mit to his editor a p r int for t h e paper which i s also go od for t he poster

5

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mountain Folk Festival -- Cotswold Morris dance workshops will be led by G Wayne Allen over the weekend of April 7-9 1988 Festival wi ll be held at Berea College KY Admi ssion is $500 for the entire weekend For information contact J o hn Ramsay Box 287 Berea KY 40 4 04 (606)986-9341 x 5143

Ken tucky Summer Dan ce School -- June 26-Jul y 21988 at Berea KY Featur~ng wo rkshops--In--carTand Dancing along with other f orms of Eng lish Country and American dan c ing S Forbes is the Garland workshop leader For informatio n write Kemtu ck y Heri tage Institute clo Don Coff ey 1581 Bond s Mill Rd Lawren ceburg KY 40342

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THE EXPERTS IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC Established 1976

We have hu ge stocks of folk Gremlin DIG Melodeon $ 17 3

instruments for CELTIC MUSIC Hohner DIG Melodeon 4 38 MORRIS DANCE and SONG Gremlin CI Il Concertina 163 ACCO MPANI ME NT Who else has 30 88Gremlin Calfskin Bodhrandifferent models of melodeon in stock 163Gremlin Thick Goatskin Bodhranalways 30 or more restored old

Hardie Bagpipes 676concert inas Scottish Irish and Northumbrian Pipes Citterns 1Set Uillean Pipes 1213 Bouzoukis Bodhrans flutes Harps Prices include shipping and taxes and much more

Send now for the HOBGOBLIN EXPORT PRICE LIST toshyHOBGOBLIN MUSIC17 Northgate Parade Crawley RH10 2DT UK

orPO Box 5311 South San Francisco CA 94080

You KvOW wHAT Yo Pf~UH I r lin

mAT WHY IVE SeuroT YOV tP tw~ -9 ~ow ThA7 ONLY WO~s N 7t A~Nt)O N

N O JANG IWMr I S 11 YPoI3IDt

Yul(tF A HVIOAN

lt1N yv tJNrP~AI-f

IYY Pf04UM I S

Iiyen tJV~C6TO FA~E-f ~9ISIA~ 7kt KIP S

tflGIIr t IPTS T IT W~ -f

rtFyenP 7ts i7yenpound ANO LJONr C-U HtF 1 HAIVKIE_ F~ApltR

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7

---- -- ----

--- - -- -----

y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

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Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Mountain Folk Festival -- Cotswold Morris dance workshops will be led by G Wayne Allen over the weekend of April 7-9 1988 Festival wi ll be held at Berea College KY Admi ssion is $500 for the entire weekend For information contact J o hn Ramsay Box 287 Berea KY 40 4 04 (606)986-9341 x 5143

Ken tucky Summer Dan ce School -- June 26-Jul y 21988 at Berea KY Featur~ng wo rkshops--In--carTand Dancing along with other f orms of Eng lish Country and American dan c ing S Forbes is the Garland workshop leader For informatio n write Kemtu ck y Heri tage Institute clo Don Coff ey 1581 Bond s Mill Rd Lawren ceburg KY 40342

gt gggggggg lt

O SliO ~ ~6 bull ~ I~r~

OV - 0 ~amp-~ ltJlP 10

THE EXPERTS IN TRADITIONAL MUSIC Established 1976

We have hu ge stocks of folk Gremlin DIG Melodeon $ 17 3

instruments for CELTIC MUSIC Hohner DIG Melodeon 4 38 MORRIS DANCE and SONG Gremlin CI Il Concertina 163 ACCO MPANI ME NT Who else has 30 88Gremlin Calfskin Bodhrandifferent models of melodeon in stock 163Gremlin Thick Goatskin Bodhranalways 30 or more restored old

Hardie Bagpipes 676concert inas Scottish Irish and Northumbrian Pipes Citterns 1Set Uillean Pipes 1213 Bouzoukis Bodhrans flutes Harps Prices include shipping and taxes and much more

Send now for the HOBGOBLIN EXPORT PRICE LIST toshyHOBGOBLIN MUSIC17 Northgate Parade Crawley RH10 2DT UK

orPO Box 5311 South San Francisco CA 94080

You KvOW wHAT Yo Pf~UH I r lin

mAT WHY IVE SeuroT YOV tP tw~ -9 ~ow ThA7 ONLY WO~s N 7t A~Nt)O N

N O JANG IWMr I S 11 YPoI3IDt

Yul(tF A HVIOAN

lt1N yv tJNrP~AI-f

IYY Pf04UM I S

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y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

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Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

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--- - -- -----

y-_ Ugggg g gg g lt THE NEXT GENERATION OF MORRIS ---WHERE WILL IT COM~FROM

PART II

In the last issue of the newsletter we looked at working with kids doing the morris and implicitly raised the question of will such an activity help lay the groundwork for future adult dancers This issue looks at current sides and how current dancers were found

There is no single succes sful means of recruitment What works in o ne community may not in another Certainly a combi nation is in order for most By looking at what is attractive to current dancers a nd how current dancers were originally attracted to the dance sides can see if some old methods should be brought down out of the attic and d usted off By looking at the philosophical issues of who should dance Morris a side can help frame a picture o f the kind of individual it wishes to seek out

Whatever techniques any of us chose to use recruiting a new younger generation of dancers needs to be part of a sides agenda If not than morris will simply be a flash in the pan in U S and Canadian cultures

WHO SHOULD DANCE THE MORRI S ~Roy Dommett

(this arti c le is being reprinted with th e pe rmission of the a u thor and he editors of Morris Matters in which the article first appear e d 0 1 9 No1)

In the quiet moments the philosophers of the morris talk about things old and new right and wrong about what they are doing and the happenings elsewhere Sometimes there is unease about differences from the perceived 19th century morris even though that itself was the end product of substantial unknowable evolution and despite the vast social changes since because there is no real continuity with the past The revival of interest in the performance of the morris passed for a period through a section of our society not normally associated with preserving these traditions Alternative justification to what is done today has been sought in aesthetics street theatre democracy Or imagined history Nothing is as clear cut in history as we would like and there is always the difference between what actually happened and the perception that influences our actions It is worth consider ing some of these uncertainties

Who Did Dance the Morris

Work continues to identify traditional performers their occupations and kin groups Eventual ly we will have a clear idea of the status of dancer s in the community and whe ther there was a decline during the 19th century Received wisdom suggests that there was a decline from the times when a farmers son might join till it was done by farm

8

labourers but with an impression o f never sinking to the l ower stra t a as the morris was more respectable than the mummers j us t as be e r drinker s were above cider

One expec ts the leader to a i m f o r a r e spec t a bility to increase the b ox Wh at is no ti c e a b le is that the same pe opl e today are ac t ive in cha rita b le wo r k i n t heir communit i es a nd t he l eaders of t en become local counc i llor s Vi l l age s ociety c h anged when 50 ma ny died in t he trenches and it is di f fi cu l t to grasp the i mpac t

Evidence fr om o t h e r dance traditio n s wi ll b e f ar l e ss detailed than the Cotswo ld morr i s At the moment it suggest s that work or trade was a c ommon elemenL miners in the NW cr a ftsmen fr o zen out of work in the West Mid l and s It i s natural that a g a ng t o dance was formed from peop l e who were l ikely to know eac h o ther socially through work or drinking Thus a team would be drawn from a smal l area because of l i mi tations at the time on c os t t i me and distance of travel

Horizons ar e di f ferent today Membe rs of tradi t i onal group s t hi s c entury have been drawn from i ncreasingly wider ter ritori es a s mob i lty i ncrea sed The t r adition is only go i ng t o t e l l us t hat s ociet y ha s c hanged in 100 years

Who Did No t Dance the Mo r ris

a People fr om Cl osed VIllage One e xpec t s that mo r ri s would on l y nappen 1n a--communlty t hat tol era te s 1 t and when a villag e was domina ted by o ne or two landlord s thei r a tti t udes prevailed There a r e cases where the big house to l era ted or e nco ura ged the morris The o ppo s ite i s difficu l t t o demonstrate There has no t been systema tic study of the charac te r o f the plac es wi t h o r without morri s Co tswo l d dancers cou l d be d rawn from a wi de a r e a so act i v e local discour ageshyme n t would not stop ke e n dancer s a lthough the ir employ me nt oppo rtun i shyt i es might b e re s t ri c ted This i s t he leve l o f speculation at whi ch the answer s a r e unknowable bec a u s e we have too f e w b i og raphies at the requi r ed d e t ai l f o r a ny generali s a tions Thu s we are l eft with argushymen ts ba sed o n c o mmon s ense whi c h wi l l mi s s out the a t ti t ude s o f t he time because they a re no longe r familia r

b Ch il dren The strength t o s ust a i n a day s d a n c ing was not s upposed to deve lop unt il a fter c h i l dhood a nd star t ing a ges of 18 p l u s ha ve b e e n mem t ioned Howe ver t here a r e case s of dancer s s tarting at 8 yea r s and eve n now youngsters have been expected to do t he lo ng a l l day h i ke at Abbot t s Broml ey Ea c h group ma y well h a ve i ts own ru les A young dancer is an attaction if dancing we ll and i t is e a s ier to train a nd contro l someone st il l liv ing at home Young men can be a ris ky i nves t shyment because of mov i ng jobs and the dis traction o f cou r t ing one reason why Bacup looke d for mar r i e d men

Health and stamina must be important but generalisations can not be drawn as it is very individ ual How common essentiall y teenage teams might have been has still to be established The revi val at Bidford was one such gang It would not be surpris ing if other teams were based on unmarried men

9

---- -

Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

---- -

Was it common for most of a team to be drawn from one small age group There hav e been childrens sides in the Cotswol d from Keith Chandlers discovery at Sherborne to the odd sides from the turn of the century trained by traditional dancers from Abingdon Bampton and Sherborne The Cotswold morris was in decline and there were alternative attracshytions by the time that universal education was having an impact and the gathering of children into Church Sunday Schools Orphanages and ordinary Schools became common so that they could be an obvious source of dancers Maypole dancing was promulgated through such channels since the turn of the century as wew the later processional dances such as at Lichfie1d and on the Cheshire Plain

As dances went with leaders rather than communiti es it was possible [or particular individuals to be responsible for teams of all ages or sexes as is emerging from NW researches Drawing examples from all the dance traditions implies the assumption that social forces dominate and were universal This could be debated

c women During the 19th century and even into the 1920s girls left nome about the age of 12-14 and went into service with perhaps no more than a half day off a week They worked long hours and had no tradition of independent activity so there was neither time or opportunity or encouragement In 1980 the United Nations reported that while women and girls constitute one half the population and one third of the labour force they actually perform two thirds of the work hours Certain women were known to have been able to dance the Cotswold morri s but it was not a common feature

As a womans property was either her fathers or husband s by law there was little financial in cen tive which is one reason why there were so few womens Friendly Societies Women did dance where there was either a trade or occupation that gave the opportunity eg milkmaids in cities and perhaps mill workers at wakes time but there is no indication that this was widespread and it was confined to girls and unmarried women (remembering also that puberty could come late) 19th century culture still required women to have a respectable so it was never a purely womens affair was not suitabl e for energetic dancing either

Both sexes dance opportunities were restricted and more of how the ones that did dance were able to find

One result is that there are few specifically women s 19th century That makes it difficult when as now

chaperone to be Normal clothing

we need to know the time

dances from the women do have the

opportunity and desire to dance using traditional material Whether their position was always so needs further consideration for the 18th and 17th centuries but it might extend back to the times when society considered women to be chattel We are witnessing a similar debate about women priests in the Church of England appealing to emotional and historical truths which range from a new understanding of equality and the need to do middotwhat is right to saying that the arguments are only a part of the whole picture and the past should not be set aside because the male role contains a truth about human nature that is permanently true and cannot be put aside

10

Public Schools and Separation of t he Sexes

On ce soci e t y e s c ape d f r om c oopera tive far m wo rk i nv o lving the whole f a mi l y where everybody di d everything there grew dif ferent rol e s an d expe ctat ions fo r the sexes and me n s thi ng s a nd womens t hingsmiddot were recogn i sed Publ i c schools began separate educ ation boys firs t t hen girls1 even Sunday Schools star t ed t h i s way Pubs Tr ade Unions and le isu r e a c tivi t ies reinforced th i s d i vi s i on by being mal e centred s o there then existed a separate male cul t ure-- the rugby c lub or spor t s team pub l ic b a r drinking with dar ts skittles and other games--which bec ame the natural basis for tradi tiona l dance teams It is not t h a t t h is is wrong i t is a f a ct tha t it i s so and i t could be a s old as si ng le sex peer groups Equal oppo r t unity and sexual d i scrimination legi s la t ion has to exist to mitigate t he worst excesses We are heirs to old ideas as well as new and the re l ationship and separation o f the sexes i s ingrained The insistence on mixed mo rris in s o me parts of the world loses an aspect of our culture to gain something else felt to be important The fac t t hat a word had to be used for it shows that there is a difficulty Are we not in the busines s of preservat ion as well as innovation What is wrong with keeping the traditional roles and arrangements a s long a s they are recognised f or what they are Morr is or any s t ree t entertainment should no t be the battleground for s exual or any other politics when the morri s ha s t o be s ocially acceptable to be tolerated at a l l by the people at large

The Revival

By thi s I mean the Cecil Sharp ini t ia ted spread of the knowled ge of t he Co tswo l d dance outside of it s na t ive Co tswolds The mo r e drama tic sword dance did not have the same impac t and even t oday i t i s at least two orders of magn i tude less Unt i l we ll a f ter WWI I c l ubs wer e fewer and sma ller There was very little s tre e t performance o f the morris and the wo r ld at lar ge d i d no t know what a morris d a ncer was whe re he came f rom or why

The EFDS S spread a knowledge t hrough school teacher s bu t that dld not l ead to s tree t per f ormance by either ch i ldren or women Other danc e t radition s cl o g border molly garland only appeared in strength in the last 10-15 years Some happenings in the s a me t i mescale were not r e viva ls but new f l ourishing--fo r exampl e the NW a t the s t a rt of t he 2 0 th century and the g i rls on t he Che s h ire Plain between the wars Chan ges in child employment patterns and the growth of yo uth organisashytions made young peoples teams practica l White-ladies teach ing c ol lege promu l gated t he Maypol e and May Queen and Mary Neal the idea of mo r ri s and country danclng for schoo l s and this grew up wi th Empi re Day May 24th and s i mi la r o p portunities f o r public d isplay by troupe s with the 2 0th cen t ury s e mphas is o n the c ul t o f the chil d Perhaps the odde s t turn abou t i s t ha t t he olde r c h1 1dren s trad ition in Cheshir e is being c ollec t e d and danced by a d ul ts

Who ~ Doing Now

The EFDSS objectiv es recognized that the dance should go back to the ordinary people It could not depend o n educated organisations vicars or schOOl teachers yet there was no way of breaking the barshy

11

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

gt ~gg999g 9 lt rier The EFDSS l ed classes in the Co tswolds taught morris country dancing and sword a nd enthused a generation but did not get them to dance in their communities or on the streets The key step h as been the 1 94 4 free education act which bro u ght people from the right backshyground to meet the preservers The first break out in numbers dancing came in the mid 1950s The n there was the discovery of n ew Cotswold traditions and the other English dances which spawned its own waves of teams and the process is still going on

Teams come wh ile others go it is the way of the world The dancers now are stil l often professional people financially middle class but socially still with roots below There is now a large number of people who can teach the morris of suitable for any group can be

Are ~e There

If the aim was to re s tore communities then it has not today s society but are drawn work or community ties to expec tations to cause them to

such diverse backgrounds that someone fou nd

a situation of local dances in local been achieved Clubs exist that fit

from wide areas There are no famil y hold them together nor community

get a t eam out each year Only with the Combe Martin Ho rse has the community taken up and taken ove r a rev ival Elsewhere like the Whittlesea St raw Bear the community is taking its own group to its heart but the normal is of dance troupes doing their own thing as an occasional entertainment If the morris arose from seasonal good luck visiting (ritual) why is it so obvious l y absent Dancing at Fetes shopping centres and outside distant pubs is not being a part of the community but going for ready made audiences and keeping at a distance What there is is a response to current social conditions but it has much more in common with medieval travelling players than the likes of Helston or Padstow Ah you should say was the morris ever part of the community I can not produce hard evidence one way or the other but I would not be surprised if conditions today are close to the way things always were with much of the morris self-centered Community involvement is my ideal It remains to be seen if the ex istence of womens morris h a s slowe d or speeded the transition fr om dance troupes to community involvement The truth is that if people want to dance they will and if yo u do not like it you have t o help not hinder

THE TORONTO

RUB WIT H COINMORRJsect MEN

531middot7469

12

WHY DO THEY DO IT A SURVEY

by Lynn No e l

How do they do it Wh y do th ey do It s a familiar cha n t to hundreds exhorted uphill at ma ny a n Ale

OF THE 1987 MIDI-lEST t10RRIS ALE

amp John Kraniak

it And how can we make them s top of Midwestern morris dancers thus

and Renaissance Festival by this stentorian bellow of Minnesota Traditional Morris own Arthur Knowles This year some Oak Ap ples and friends deci ded to dig a little deeper and find out why they r eally do it

This survey was conducted on May 24-2 7 1988 at the Seventh Annual Mi dwest Morris Ale in Dodgevil le Wi sconsin We received a total of 77 respo nse s or 41 of the 189 r egiste r ed Ale participants The s urvey was voluntary self-administered throughout the we ekend in the main gathering area (Ne xt time we plan to hand them ou t at r eg i stra tion) We had three main goals

1) t o describe the Midwest morris dancing population for comparison with other dance groups elsewhere (such as the earl y 19 80 s survey of international folk da ncers at Pinewoods Camp MA)

2) to test a p revalent theory that morris dancing is a 1970s fad showing a baby-boomer bulge and declining into the 1980s as values change

3) To gather some concrete evidence on that evershypopular topic what is it that is really imp~rt a nt to morriscos What starts them out and keeps them danCing

The survey had three main sections basic demographic information (age gender income etc) dance information (number o f performing seasons percent o f performances a ttended other dance groups etc) and the main focus of the study fourteen elements of morris dancing (dis tilled fr om deep discussion among Oak Apple executive board) to be marked as personally impo rtant to the respondent a) now and b) when she first began dancing This gen e rated a vast amo unt of data far more than c an be dealt with in thi s s hort space The foll owing is a brief overview of the res ults whi ch we hope will stimulate di sc uss ion and further analys is We will conclude with some composite sketches to flesh out the bare bone s of sta ti st i cs read on to unmask the Generic Morris Gennymiddot and her friend Ta ils middot the elusive Composite Rarity

Demographics

The Midwest Ale is attended primarily by mixed teams This is evident

~ in our survey as respondents wer e fairly evenly divided by gender (55 women 4 5 men) They bel onged to a total 12 states CO DC IL IN MA MD MI MN MO the respondents were aged 25-35 with 12 over under 25 39 had a four year college degree five years of postgraduate work (We find this

13

of nineteen teams from NB NC and WI 69 of

40 and only two dancers and 25 had at l e ast

typical of morris teams

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

tn uni versi ty t o~m s In ~Jadi son WI Oa k Apple Morri s incl ud i n g recent al u mni h as 8 Ph Os ( i n cl ud i n g ABD) and 7+ p r o fe s s iona l d e shygree s among s o me thirty dancers Ex c essi v e we a d mit ) Average income is in the $21 - 30 000 (s a l ary) bracke t u n s urpris ing l y 53 l i sted the ir p rima ry oc c upa tion a s e i t h e r acad e mi c (2 e 6 ) o r bus i nessshyprofessio n a l ( 24 7 ll ) 24 li s t ed a s e c ondary o ccupa t ion e v en l y s p r ead among students a rtists heal t h c a r e and t e c hn i cal-trade 81 liste d t heir e t h nic i t y as ei the r No r t h e rn ( 5 2) o r We s tern ( 2t ) Europe a n with a f ur t her 11 f r o m Eas tern Eu r ope None cl a i med Asi a n Pa c if i c or Midd le Ea s tern d e scent (th e re were t wo liispani c s and t hree Na ti v e Ame r i cans ) and 6B consi d er ed t he msel ves o f Br lt1 s h I sles ancestry

DANCE EXPER I ENCE

The ave r a ge respondent bad been dancing f o r sl i g htl y l e s s than fi ve yea r s ( 4 75 defin ed a s fu l l perpoundo~min9 seasons ) Mean numbe r o f per fo r mances per t eam was 15 and 77 a ttended over t h ree-quarter s of a ll per f o rmances (on l y 9 o f responden t s attended l e s s t han half o f all performanc es) middotFo r 72 theiI cur r e n t morris te am i s their f irst o f the mu l t i p l e-teame rs in t eres t i ngly on l y seven of 2 2 c ame from t he Eas t c o ast wi th the r esl f r om the Midwest (in cl uding Col o r a do ) About ha 1pound o f the danc e r s be l o ng to other p e rfor mi n g g r oups (51 ) and c on tr a d anc ing heads the li s t o f o ther d a nce a c t iv i ties (9 0 ) It i s f o l l owed by other Br i t ish I s les d a n cin g ( 52 ) o the r et h n i c (50) and ball room (3 0ll ) with jazz aerobic modern ball e t and other dr a wing less than 20 e a ch

(No te open-ended questions ( l e i sure time a c t i vi ties tYPE~S o f pe r f onni n g g roups r e li g i ous a ffi l iation) h a v e y et t o be tabu l ate d Sta y t un e d)

WH Y DO ~EY DO I T

Our thir t een i t ems c on tain some deliberate o v er l a p ~rhey wer e th e product o f a b r a i ns torming s ession among s eve n Oak Appl e s wi t h over 4 0 years c ollect ive dan c e expemiddotr ience on mo r e t h an si x t e ams We had f o r e cas t t h a t s o c i a l p e rfor man ce and exe r c ise wou l d r ate high but we were surprised by t h e overa l l r ank ings comp u t er- genera ted by t~a t PC-SAS wi zard and Trusty Nativ E GlIide-in-Chief of the 8 7 MWMA Bwana John Kr ani a k

Th e o ld d eba t e r a ges o n I s morri s a s ocial a cti v i t y exerc ise or a perfo rmance All t h r e e say t-he Mi dweste r ners Most jOin f o r soci a l r ea1Oo n s (see f i g ures ) bu t vigo rou s physical exerc i s e is t he sec ond f avo ri te ( Interes ting l y the larges t c b ange o v er tIme occurs with th e ve terans on l y 2 71 o f danc er s wi t h 10+ yea r s e x pe rienc e rat ed e x e rcise a s i mportant wh en they b egan bu t n o w it s i mportan t to 82 Capers t he ultimate in e i ghties aerobicsl) lin interes t i n performance develops quickl y all dancers r at e d i t h igher n ow than when they beg an (49 to 7 9) wi th the biggest incr e ase occu ring in the first year j37 t o 75) Hu r r ah for the rookies

New dancers also report the larges t i n crease in persona l ties to other dancers (suc h as friendship or marriage) Less than half (43) list it as impo r tant when t h e y began (less than a year ago) but n o w 75 rate

14

it so This increase is common to all experience levels reveal ling the bonds of the morris community (as anyone who has ever been to three morris weddings in one s e ason can attest)

Morris is also important to dancers for its ties to history (5th place) the novelty wears off after a year or so the only ltem to lose ~mportance wlth experience (Oh jaded ones) The ritual aspects are important to a Whopping 4 0 of beginners risin~61 with experience () Teamwork can be considered a subset of social activity but deserved lts own listing we felt to distinguish work from mere togetherness Its importance doubled from 36 to 68 Take note all ye who would book morris dancers on a festival stage in an auditorium 43 of dancers surveyed care about morris as an outdoor activity (up from 34) And this in the frozen sweltering upper Midwes t

There are some unexpected dregs Oral tradition ranks 10th in original importance (8th now) and my--SUsplclon of morris as a 19 70 s counterculture haven was blasted by the 11th place of arcane counterculture activity (23 beginning up to 45 now Hmmm~S on the rise) Despite the overwhelming prevelence of Britis h Isles ancestry (68) less than a third reported ethnicity as an important reason f o r morris dancing (21 then 2 7 now) Finally rites notwithstanding fertility ranked a dismal last overall (1 7 for beginners 35 now)

We can draw some conclusions from this brief review First there is a definite demographic bulge of dancers in their late twenties and early thirties Of those dancers (48 of 77 ) 15 have been dancing for two to four years (31) and another 15 for five to nine (31) This puts their start time at 1979-1986 the peak time of team formation in this country (new teams peaked at 14 in One year in 1982 [source AMN 1987 Team Roster]) It also follows that larger theory of a 30-year c ycle of morris folk revivals (1920s 1950s) Anyone whos been to the Ale has heard the nostalgia how it used to be a wild time Then there were the couples Then the weddings Then the babies Now for the first time in 1987 th MWMA offered day care for the wild morriscos of the year 2000 When will we see the first all-parentshychild Trunkles

BlIt lest we focus overmuch on the masses consider this 56 of the survey responmiddotdents had danced less than four years New recruits are coming and from all ages Of the 16 new dancers this year (those who had danced one year or less) two were 2 2-2 5 five 26-30 1 five 31-35 and four were 36-45 The rookies (16) outnumber the ten-year veterans (11) so morris is in no danger o f extinction in its Midwestern range (Of course lets not forget the need for a viable population of s ix dancers and a musician) All aspects of morris dancing (except novelty) were rated higher overall by dancers nOw than when they began dancing And it seems to be that unique combination of social physical and artistic activity -- that eternal triangle of creative tension on every team that grabs and holds those wild morriscos The only question left to answer is how do we make them stop

J

15

CAPSULE SKETCHES THE GENE RI C MIDWE STERN MORRIS DANCER amp THE COMPOSITE RARI TY - -- shy

NOTE Th e followin g por tra i t s are stati s tic a l constructs Genny r epr esents t hose i t em6 f a lling + or - 1 s t a ndar d devia ti on f rom the me an Ta i ls r e p resen ts the p( t r eme e nds of the s tanda r d bel l c urve Any rese mblance to any per s on l ivi n g o r dead i s pure ly co i nciden tal If recog n ized photogr aphs will be encour a g ed (but n ot re turned )

THE GENERI C MORR IS DANCER

Ge nnymiddot i s a 2B- year-o l d s tate offic e work e r with a B A from the un i vers ity of XXXX S he c onside r e d s o (ia l wor k and health care as career s b u t even t ua l l y o pted fo r gradua te t raining in c omputer sci shye nce S he beg an d anc ing mo r ris in college When s ome f r iends she me t a t a c on tr a dance recrui t ed her t o pass the sword c ake at a Hay festiv a l Now she d a n ces r e g u larl y leads t he occa sion a l t o ur and mana g e s t o make i t t o a b ou t ten performances a yea r Her mid-twen t ies i ncome all ows her t o i n d u l g e h er t aste f o r Reeboks aud io equipmen t a nd sma l l J a p ane s e cars ( s he drives a Toyota Ce lica wi t h l o t s of bumper s t ickers )

Her fami 1 y comes from England and Scandinavia but she d o esnt t h ink about i t much Sh e goes too every con tra d a nce and c hooses each week fr om Eng li sh c ountry Sco ttis h a nd i nterna t iona l dance even t s f or an average of a b ou t 5 1 2 hours d anc in9 a week Soc i a l d ancing is what mor r is is to her a chanc e to meet fri end s a nd get some exerc ise i n a commu n i t y set t i ng She l oves t he lense o f teamwor k b ut more so the adrenali n from a good pr actice o r per formance Thoug h t h e nove l t y h a s worn o f f o ver the years she s d iscove r e d a s e t o f va lues t hat wi l l keep he r morris dan c ing for a whi l e ye t _- u n til she a nd h er morr i s ma te find t eams

it too hard to jugg l e two j obs two k ids and maybe two

THE COMPO SI 1E RAI TY ~ Ta ils of t he c urve )

He we ars h is ha ir i n t wo pigta ils Maybe that s why they call h im Tai l S He s i n h is l a t e fo r t ie s a nd h i s earl y t wen ties -- men t a lly and physic ally o r maybe t he o t he r way a round He s a kind of per shypet ual Peter Pan hes been danc i ng f or eighteen year s but s t i ll ha s n t ma naged t o c o mp l e te a sing l e f u l l perform a nce s e a s o n He s o n a hard- core t e a m _ - e~ghty pe rformances a y ear -- and ltIpparen tl y a big o ne t oo for they ke ep p e r form ing e ven wh en h e s h ows up t o l e s s t ha n a quar t er o f t he gi gs He ha s b e e n k no wn t o spend lip to 2 4 hours a week danc ing (though he be longs to no other per f orming group ) or to l anshygu ish poundomiddotr mo n t h s d o ing no danci n g wha tsoe ve r

His southern Eur opea n ances try expla ins h is hotb l o oded pa s s ion f or modern dance t ap a nd ballet Dance mus t indeed be a passio n in his l i fe for despite five years of postgrad uate education he has never managed to g r a dua te from h igh school He is employed il1 s oc i a l sershyvice and (predic tably) earns l ess than $5000 a ye a r We can on ly auess at t he s econdary occupation listed only as clerical tha L brings hi s annua l income to $41000+

16

Morris dancing a s a counterculture wallow of the a rcan e reeki n g with ritual and florid with fertility holds our mans i nterest Given his attendanc e record its unsurprising that Ta ils finds morris a novelty st ill -- or perh aps its his youthful guileless temperme nt More perplexing is his claim to value the morris for reasons of ethni shycity Perhaps he has learned the wild morisc o from John Fo rrest or atten~ed the Basque workshop at the 1987 HWMA

Well Genny and Tail s dont have much in common But opposites attract they say They actually live i n t he same t o wn This strictly scientific survey suggests that if youre l ook ing for the run-of-theshymill or the random t he statistical or the just plain mean -- why theres o nl y one place t o l ook (in the Upper Midwest at least) MINNEshySOTA s got it a ll (The a uthor s mind you are from Wis con s in)

e rr o r dCm ctU rgportln tm U ~ l mPOO nt ~

Prrce nt ot d a n err Upon Item 113 Im portant by VU e ddncncrrlrd middot 0-1 2-1 5 - 9 1Q+ 0bv VP IIr~ 10 11 12 13 (le ft to right In IfD Ch group)

70100shy abt8In lII ~ant~DnON 55 D now ~g0 35g

0shy 10 ~ I 111I1I1I1I11 1111

l)~IZl I e) loea mwork 2) u rcl~ 9) outdoor

3) plrlormanCt 10) oral trad 4) pcr~namp1 j1 ) arCAne

6) hblory 12) thnJcl ty ~Ial xr cI~ ptrforman ce pUtOnai UH 6) novelty 13) IU lUlty

7) ritual

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

LYNN NOAL r e tired as Squire of Oak Apple Morris after chairing the 198 7 Midwest Mo rris Ale She now does music and environmental education fulltime and moonlights as a Macintosh maniac When not o n the road she shares quarters with JOH N KRANIAK a dyed-in-the-woolshythree-piece-suit State of Wisconsin bureaucrat and ce rtified sociologist without whose reams of cross tabs this article would never have existed The authors invite comments feedback (turn DOWN that amp) and furth e r hashing of the ir data of wh ich there is lots For a complete copy of the statistics runs andor the raw dat a (PC-S AS) write John Kraniak at 927 Jenifer Street Madison WI 53703 (608) 251 shy4552

17

EDITORS EPILOGUE

Informal surveys were also di stributed at the 1987 Suds held in Connecticut and at the Berkeley Morris 10th Anniversary Ale in California Each survey was in a different format so direct compilation is not possible Some que stion s did coincide and t hose respons e s follow A total of 39 respons e s we re received

1 How did y ou f i r st get introshy 2 What made you stay with the duced to Morris d ancing Morris What got y ou hooked

(more than one answe r given by a through a fri end each respondent)

(inc ludes spouse partners) 36 a the spir i t(s ) (fun

b at a morris perfo rmance 26 dr i nk ritual) 32 c t hrough o ther dance b the people (social

groups 19 group dancing wi th d at camp or workshop 1 2 on e s own se x ) 30 e fli e rs 2 c the phy sical d anc ing 23 f other 5 d the music 8

e Eng li sh c ustoms history 4 f don t knowstup idity 3

3 How long have you danced (only 27 responding)

0-3 y ears 7 3-6 years 14 6- 9 years 3 10 or more 3

Finally Mi n neso ta Traditional Morris foreman Ed Stern rec ently distributed a histo rical a nalysis of the ages at which its memb e r ship joined the sid e c o mpared to the current age of members In 1 979 all but o ne me mbe r was unde r the age of 30 wi t h 7 out of 16 of those men were 26 or younger Currentl y th e maj o rity of the sides 25 d a ncers are well o ver thir t y with e v e n a f ew over forty Even more important ly a l arge po r t i on of recent rec ruits have been over 30 years of ag e The side is me rel y get t i n g older although it is not lacking for n u mber s

MTM may no t stand as an average representative side in No rth America but th e ag ing of its membersh i p is a phenomenon being s h ared b y many other groups

AshyAUI bull I0Ct HILL MO~

S~~ ~ltr 431 Covered BridQe RcLCherry HilL NJ 08034

(609) 795-9399 (215) 643-1058

18

gt gg gggggg lt MOSSYBACKS SIGN FREE-AGENT ROGER NEATE

(The following excerpted article is being reprinted with the permission of the authors and editors of The Morning Star the Seattle Morris Newsletter October 1987) ---- shy

Management for the Mossybacks Morris Men announced the signing of Vancouver Morris Man free agent Roger Neate No exact figur e s were revealed but inside sources said that Neate signed for a surprisingly low package deal one part of which was a promise not to be elected squire his first year MoBack Squire and director of dancer recruitment Lars the Bloody Handed Watson also affectionately known as Steinbrenner West denied accusations that he had used Neates romance with Misty City dancermusician Shauna Brown as leverage in negotiations Roger s romance was obviously a factor in wanting to come to Seattle Watson said but wed never ever use something like that to our advantage Not us No sir Nope Besides we wouldnt be the first Reporters present believed that he was alluding to similar charges leveled against Misty City 2 years ago when Jan Heikkala (now Martindale) formerly of Portland Morris moved to Seattle and married Ian Martindale (now Martindale) of MoBacks

Ken Smith Fool and Vice President of operations for the MoBacks added that Neates willingness to sign for a low overall figure was just an indication of Neates humilitty his unassuming nature and of his p lacing dancing and art above petty renumeration Smith added that Wat son had used his not considerable influence with Senator Brock Adams to he lp Neate a known radical get across the border Smith brushed off charges that he and Watson had caused those problems i n the fi rst place presumably as another leverage tactic Hey come on what kind of guys do you think we are he said

Squire s from non-Seattle Morris sides were reluctant to comment though some did report that they were considering chaperoning their single dancers when Seattle sides came to town or they went to Seattle One Squire on condition of anonymity stated that It looks suspicious to me The Mo ssybacks lure someone away from Portland for Misty City Then the Mistys lure someone away from Vancouver I think theyr e in cahoots I just hope that Elliott Bay does n t get into the act No representatives of the Vancouver Morris Men were available for comment and apparently refused to answer our calls

Misty City Squire Ellie Gator denied any collusion between Misty City and the MoBacks That wo uld c learly be a violation of the Interstate Morris Act and the Mor ri s Anti-Trust Act Wed never do that No sir Not us Nope Reporters noted the similarity of Gators comments to those of British Labor Party leader Neil KinnocK

19

RECRUITI NG COMMENTS FROM READERS (excerpted from material r ec eived b y th e e ditor)

FOR REC RU I TING WEVE TRIED 1) Word of mouth - in the past th is me thod has be en s ucce ssfu l enough however this past ye a r we h ad t o re s o rt to other me thods 2 ) Performi ng at o ur loc al dance s ponsored by t he Albemarl e Country Dance a n d Song socie ty bullbull 2 new member s 3) put t ing a no ta tion in t he ACDSS newsl e tte r bull bullbull 1 me mber 4) P lac i ng an ad in our loca l week l y news paper bull 2 new membe rs t hcugh 4 more s howed up ini t ia lly then dropped out - - Ju l i a Kindred Cou rt Square Dan ce rs

Wh at ha s wo r ked for us is a mu ch l es s fo rma l af f air We g i v e out in Sep t e mber t h at thi s i s the time fo r a nyone to s how up t o begin danci ng This is by word o f mo uth we generall y k now wh o may be intereste d We start them immediate ly on the b ase step o f our ma jora lly performed t rad i t i on So meone generally t he s q uire or I wi ll wo r k wi th them on the sidel i n e to g e t them in as soon as possible They are e nc ouraged to g rab a nyone not d ancing f or whatever hel p t hey need Th is work s mi raculously quick l y We have never bad anyo n e of no a pti t ude take up our time any l onger t ha n a month o r s o And never nave had to pol i tely a sk anyo ne to leave -- Lisa Ginett Mi d ni g h t Cape rs

We hav e a l ways held cl a sses a nd inv ited pe op le to join fr om there La tely there h a s b e en ver y li ttle i n te r est i n classes Al most ze ro attendance We are g oing t o tr y person a l i nvitat i o n to people we t hink mi ght be i nteres t ed and a few annou ncemen t s of vacancies middot d u ring our spring touring I hav e n o idea how it wi ll go - but we d o need new b lood It s a probl em and e asy t o s ee why Hor r is di ed ou t -Pe r i odically i n England -- And y Bar rand Marl boro Horr i s amp Swo r d

General ly we h o ld a n ope n pr a ct i c e s e r ies f or a ppr o ximatel y six we ek s i n Oc tober November We a dve r tis e th is v ia the posting of flye rs and distr i b ution of fl yers at loc a l d a nce even ts usua l l y we will a ttend 2 o r 3 di f f e r e nt i ntern a t i ona l o r con t ra dance s and do a dance or t wo at b re a k- time and make an announc e me n t about open pr ac t ices Another very effect ive means was the us e of a t a pe const ructed by one o f our membe r s that was cleve r f unny a nd inv i t in g a nd played on the l oca l fo lk mus i c prog ram o n the rad i o Al l o f t he a dve r tiseme n t s ar e done in Sept before Ope n Pract i c e a n d we do not all ow a nyone to join us af t e r about the 3rd week s i nce l ea r ni ng is cummu l ative bull bull bull We ve usua ll y netted 2-4 new peopleuro a year t hi s way -- Har il ou Kaub i n Spruce Hil l Morr is

Most recentl y we h ave recruited via word of mou t h and keeping names and numbers of i nter e sted people ( t hose who c o me up t o us at gi g s fo r in stance and say I d li ke to do t hat ) I joined after s eeing a sign posted at t he loca l fol kdance c e n ter bullbullbull Also havi ng a n appren tice group every o ther ye a r r ather than every yea r seems to b e wo r king well since it real l y ta kes t wo years f or n ew dance rs to get good at the danc i ng so our foref o l k can concentrate on teaching one set of new dance rs rathe r than having t o wo rk with seve ral skill l eve ls -- Ka y Schoenwetter Bells-of-the-North Morris

20

gt g gggggg g lt TEAM NEWS

From Vermont comes news of putney Morris Men and squire Fred Breunig who writes to say that they are 100k1ng anead to a good strong year with more members than weve ever had (We are) still exploring Brackley style dances

Fr e d also wr ote of Green Mountain Mu mmers which recently completed its 13th year of touring-- We reallzed 1n the middle of it that we have had the same set of 6 dancers for 10 years He continues Our annual outing on Halloween Weekend is a high point of the year for all of us

Rock Creek Morris Women in our nations capitol sent news that they are adClTiigNorthwest Clog to their repertoire Their schedule for the Spring includes the Annual Equinox Tour (Mar ch 19) Annual Cherry Blossom Tour (April 10) Annual Quail Ale (Ma y 21 - 22) and partiCipating in the Marlboro Ale (May 28-29)

Mor e detailed ne ws from sides follows This section of the newsletter still remains One of the most popular features among reader s Keep sending those tidbits of information on a regular basis

BEREA COLLEGE DANCERS KY

The Berea College Dancers spent the month of January on tour We drove our schoo l bus 6740 miles in a route from Berea to Kansas City Boulder CO Albuqueque Tuscon Obregan Mexi co and Mexi co City We danced the Upton Stick Dance and Mayapple a garland dance throughout the tour and made good use of a brief mummers play

A high point in more ways than one was a climb up the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuaca n on a sunny afternoon January 26 There our lads removed their shirts and performed a rapper set for our Indian guide and the sun god who had been sleeping there since 700AD when the site was abondoned

John H Ramsay

BREAD amp ROSES Toronto Canada

We are practising for May Day and the spring season and looking forward to a v isit to Boston in May Unfortunately we lost our foreman Louise Love for at least a year She got an offer she couldnt refuse in Kuala Lumpar so we waved goodbye to her in January Now we sit in our deep snowbanks waiting for her gloating letters of the heat sunshine and warm sea breezes We figuree shes been there three weeks and should have a Morris team organized by now

21

We hav e div ided up t he d a nces and will work on po lishing up and perhap s a fe ne w dances mtil the sprin g We h ave d e cided we ll d a nce out much mo r e thi s summe r a nd a r e i n the proces s o f organi z i ng tour s and d a nce-ou t s As u s ual we ll s t a r t t he seas o n o f f with our middot wo rm dance o n Ta m Kearney s (o f Fi ddle rs Gr een Folk Club) front lawn the Sunday befor e May Day a nd we ll be o ut in nigh Pa r k a t d awn on Ma y Day with Gr een Fi dd le To ro n t o Mo rri s Me n and h op e f ul l y two n ew t e ams this year Yes bull morr i s is growi ng agai n i n Toron to

Eil een Ma rltwi ck

CASTLEWOOD MORRI S DANCERS Lex i ng ton KY

19 87 wa s a pr e t t y qu i et year fo r us We g o t two new dan ce rs g i ving us a to tal of e i gh t dancers a nd t o mu s i cians We dan c e d (for t he fou r t h year ) a t the Governo r s Derb y Breakfast o n De r by Day Thi s is a n even t where pe ople ge t dr e sse d up to s tand i n lin e s fo r h ours to ge t in t o a huge ten t t o ea t a break fas t sponso r ed by the Gover nor o f Ken t ucky Women we ar e l a borate h a t s a nd h igh-heel e d s h o e s We enjoy i t becaus e t he enj oy u s s o much bullbull an d we g e t t o b r e ak line for b r eakfast We a lso danced at v a r ious outdoor cra ft a nd mu s i c events

This ye a r Castl ewo o d is e xpa nding We have 3-4 new women a nd a cou p l e of new me n Yes MEN Were f acing a t ough d e cision this ye a r - t o mi x or not to mi x On on e hand we like b e ing a women s side a nd hav e plenty o f wome n dance r s Some o f-US-s ti l l remember the old days when the Lexi n g t o n Morris Men wouldnt dan ce in mixe d sets - unless the y needed an extr a p e r s on to ma ke up the s et On the other ha nd we WOUldn t wan t t o d eny anyone the p l easure of Morris dancing and it doesnt look as if LMM ar e going to get back tog e the r

We re l o oki n g forwa r d to the Midwest Ale t his y e ar especially after missing t h e last time a nd will be ther e c ome hell (Michigan) or high wa ter bullbullbull

Sandy Roberts o n

COURT SQUARE DAN CERS Char lottesville VA

The Courts Squ a r e Dancers a wo me ns r i bbon garland and stav e team are going to England J une 15 t h 1 988 We wi l l be touring for t wo we e ks wi t h a var ie ty o f Engl ish s i de s thos e who pe r form bo r der c l o g stave ga r land nor t hwest and co t swo ld At the p re s ent time we ar e the only t eam in the O S and Eng land p e r fo rmi ng tradi t iona l Eng lish r ibbon dan ces We ho p e t o spark an i n tere st i n ribbon du r ing ou r t our

Julia Ki ndr ed

HAPENNY MORRI S Bos to n MA

Hapenny Morris is celebr ating its tenth a nniversary t his year We were started during the bli zzard of 78 when much of Ne w England was closed for severa l days giv ing our founding members the time to have a n organizationa l meeting We are marking the occasion wit h a ve ry

22

bu s y year P lans include orga nizing a trip t o England which will ho p e fully take place this summer during the last part of Jul y We found la s t year that we enjoy traveling together when we went to Ontario twic e for both the London and Toronto Ales

We will be hosting the Phome a gain a gathering of wome n s morris teams This y e ar it will be in Boston for the first time instead of the rural settings of past Phom e s This will be the sixth annual all (almo st) f e mal e ale

Hapen ny dan c es Oddington and Asc o tt under Wychwood The Oddi ng t o n fe e ls like just the right fit for the team styl e s o we will continue wi th i t f o r the third or fourth year We are learning s e v e r a 1 new danc e s made up by team me mbe rs for this season Four ne w me mber s j oine d this year for a total of about 20 Jan Elliot r e mains as foreman and Meg Ryan is squire

Meg Ryan

MARLBORO MORRIS amp SWORD Marlboro VT

Marlboro Morris amp Sword had a wonderful trip to England last s ummer whe n we we re fortunate to see some of the best Morris we had ever witnes s ed Among the notables we re Mr Jorrocks Morris Me n an d 7 Champi o n s Were already hard at wo rk on 198 8 s Marlboro Ale t o be c oshyhosted with the Marlboro Men and l o ok f o rward ot another sea so n of j oyous touring

Andra Barrand

MERRIE MAC MORRIS Wheare NH

Merrie Mac Morri s is warming itse lf with p l e asant though ts o f a delightful rerun of the fall ale th e S B O YNA (Second Biennial Odd Year NoWeare Ale) which turned into a Ri verfest on Sunday morning with a torr e ntial downpour Guest team included Rose amp Thorn (CT) Blackstone Valley (RI) Hearts of Oak (NY) remnants of Woodshole Morri s (MA) a nd Middlesex (MA and the only team besides Merrie Mac not in green vests) In what must be a fir s t we stayed on schedule TOr the first full day of dancing around Co ncord

The team i s in a strong solid gr owth phase (nice for a change) and sl owly adding ne w members t o a n e xperienced core of dancers We limi ted the additio n o f new member s t o late fall and e ven voted on our r e pe tori e f o r the y e ar with Bledington as the mainn ew tradition At least we looked organized on pape r With we ddings of current and past membe rs expected this season a few ne wmiddot dances are planned in keeping with the Merrie Mac tra dition New Years Eve brought our fourth p e rforman c e in Concords First Night festivities Rising to the occasio n Me rrie Mac wrote a uniquely New Hampshireelection year mumme rs play two hours before the performance For collectors of political and ritual ephemera a copy of the play is available

We look forward to the spring NEFFA the Mixed Morris Ale a change of kit and a blow-out May Day in 1988 Traveling dancers c an find us

2 3

Sunday nigh ts 7pm at Eas t Concord Communi ty Cente r and c an a lway s f ind a pl ace to stay

Nancy Wi n neg

MYSTIC GARLAN D Mystic CT

The Mys t i c Ga rla n d i s at the moment very i nv olved in planning a two we ek tou r in Eng l and nex t J u ly Our tour wil l take us f r om Hampshire up to the mid l ands a nd ba c k visi t ing with 1 0 mixed and wo mens teams on th e way We a re dazzled by the variety of dancing o u r host teams promi se us r a nging fr om Cotswold to stick and garland to NW Clog t o Bo r der We are fortunate enough t o have someone i n England who h a s pl anned our i t inerary and con tac ted all the hos t teams [or us Whil e e xc itement mounts he r e were considering a regimen of vita min megadoses and body building t o get us through this rathpr grue ling two week s c bedul e

Joan Nickel

NEW HAVEN MORRI S amp SWORD CT

The l ast year h a s been s omewhat a blur As soo n as one incred i blamp event was over another was demanding immediaLe planning o r preparation Our large-scale home dance evenLs in the last year have inc l uded the Fifth An nual Mixed Morris Ale t wo teammates weddingd a wee kend vis it by Fenstanton Morris the sides 10 Year Reunion (i n Oc t ober ) and the annual Li tchfield Weekend (in January ) Road trips took u s to t he wonderfu l WakeRobin (amp Juggler Me adow) Fa ll Ale a peak event all a round a nd t o the Half Moon Sword Ale in NYC t he ultimate urban event ( 288) Yo u simply must try dancing in Grand Centr al Station s omeday (with perm i t )

Our r e un ion was a huge s ucces s About 50 o f the 93 people who have danc e d out with New Haven made it for the weekend Polks who hung up t he i r bell s year s ago had a few aches and pains after dancing ou t Sa turday Our feas t was we 11 p r epared and we ll ea t en Our vin tage 82 mov i es were shown thanks to Chri s Neurath

We a re now making plans fo r the Sixth Annua l Mi xed Morris Ale to be he l d in the New Haven area a gain this ye ar on Memorial Weekend We are n e go tia ting with Chef John Ryan to drop the cello ( in Denver) and make some jel l o (or white chocolate mou s se again lhis year

Our biggest problems right now are 1) sl ippery floo r at the Gaelic Cl ub wher e we pract ice 2 ) in juries (danc e and nooon-danc e r elatec) 3) mor r i s widow syndrome (all you eVeI do is dance) and 4) old fart s yndrome (s enility and over - sensi t ivity oC older team- members) We ar e prac t i c i ng at the New Haven Gae lic Cl ub o n WEdnesday evenings We put up with t he s li ppery flo o r bec ause the r ent is reasonable and available from 6- 11pm Als o Mic k t he caretaker o pens the bar i n tht e nex t room abou t 8pm a nd has Guines s and Harp on t ap Now tha t s wor th slipping around for bull

Gary Johnson

24

ROSE amp THORN CT

Ro se amp Thorn is moving into the 1988 dance season with s everal new recruits We continue wi th our team tradition Fieldtown and intend to pick up various dances in other traditions The team wil l be having Howard Lesnick Black Jokers foreman over for a workshop this Mar ch The workshop was scheduled for last year but since the entire side was new and drumming Fieldtown basics we were just not ready to e xpand our horizons

Last fall we were invited to dance a large gig at the Rose land House Arts Pestival in Woodstock to a very enthusiast ic crowd A local paper gave us an entire front page plus 2 inter i or page wri te-up Pho t o- up following that event a nd by the time we danced a Halloween private party two weeks later peop le knew about (understood) Ho rris danc ing in Northeast Connecticut That gig also became our farwell tour for Bruce Wiegold who wa s he aded for New Zealand for as l ong as money he ld out In a recent card he men t ioned that the summer morr i s season is i ll full swing

In November and December th e team practiced and performed the Ample fo rth Sword Dance Plans are underway to secure a grant for some rea 1 swords The band iron is to o heavy and sounds dead bu t has served u s well since 198 4 Other 1988 e vents included the 5th Mixed Morris Ale hosted by New lIaven the 5- Day Wander with the Hearts of Oak and the NoWheare Ale with Mer ri e Ma c Al l were good times and we thank them all bull

Tom French

SPRUCE HILL MORRIS PA

Weve finally a ch ieved some consistency this year in that we lost f ew dancers and have a good co r e of veterans About a half d o z en sprouts joined us i n September and we re amazed at how quickly t hey ve fa l len into step

After our b e love d Ann Di xon passed away Bonnie Bl air OConnor (Co r me rly of Ma r lboro Mo rris Sword) s tepped to the r ore Shes been teaching us l Imington and were hanging onto ol d faithful field t own as we l l a s some Duckling t on Wer e reall y lucky to hav e Bonni e as our fore~an - s he s done wel l by us

In the last year or two we have had severa l Spruce Hi l l K ingses slng Wedding s The rea lly ni c e t hing about the re l a t ionships between the two teams is that though t hey stil l rema i n dis t i nctl y sepa r a te weve been a ble to c oll aborate effective ly - mos t especially on our a nn ual spring t our now appr oa c h i ng 4

Also weve had several births of Spruce Hill babies and fina lly after thre e boys Cinda Edgerton b l e s sed us with Emily Were hclPPY that the littl e rug rats havent kept t heir moms from practicing with t he team for too long either

Maril ou Raines Kaubin

25

cfU4ERICofIn 940RR15 ClEW5LllrIR cIa James C Brickwedde 31D1 111h ave So Minneapolis MN 664D7

ell UBLIC~IO OF ~GLISH C~REMOtllfiL 9)tI(1

RECRUITI NG COMMENTS FROM READERS (excerpted from material r ec eived b y th e e ditor)

FOR REC RU I TING WEVE TRIED 1) Word of mouth - in the past th is me thod has be en s ucce ssfu l enough however this past ye a r we h ad t o re s o rt to other me thods 2 ) Performi ng at o ur loc al dance s ponsored by t he Albemarl e Country Dance a n d Song socie ty bullbull 2 new member s 3) put t ing a no ta tion in t he ACDSS newsl e tte r bull bullbull 1 me mber 4) P lac i ng an ad in our loca l week l y news paper bull 2 new membe rs t hcugh 4 more s howed up ini t ia lly then dropped out - - Ju l i a Kindred Cou rt Square Dan ce rs

Wh at ha s wo r ked for us is a mu ch l es s fo rma l af f air We g i v e out in Sep t e mber t h at thi s i s the time fo r a nyone to s how up t o begin danci ng This is by word o f mo uth we generall y k now wh o may be intereste d We start them immediate ly on the b ase step o f our ma jora lly performed t rad i t i on So meone generally t he s q uire or I wi ll wo r k wi th them on the sidel i n e to g e t them in as soon as possible They are e nc ouraged to g rab a nyone not d ancing f or whatever hel p t hey need Th is work s mi raculously quick l y We have never bad anyo n e of no a pti t ude take up our time any l onger t ha n a month o r s o And never nave had to pol i tely a sk anyo ne to leave -- Lisa Ginett Mi d ni g h t Cape rs

We hav e a l ways held cl a sses a nd inv ited pe op le to join fr om there La tely there h a s b e en ver y li ttle i n te r est i n classes Al most ze ro attendance We are g oing t o tr y person a l i nvitat i o n to people we t hink mi ght be i nteres t ed and a few annou ncemen t s of vacancies middot d u ring our spring touring I hav e n o idea how it wi ll go - but we d o need new b lood It s a probl em and e asy t o s ee why Hor r is di ed ou t -Pe r i odically i n England -- And y Bar rand Marl boro Horr i s amp Swo r d

General ly we h o ld a n ope n pr a ct i c e s e r ies f or a ppr o ximatel y six we ek s i n Oc tober November We a dve r tis e th is v ia the posting of flye rs and distr i b ution of fl yers at loc a l d a nce even ts usua l l y we will a ttend 2 o r 3 di f f e r e nt i ntern a t i ona l o r con t ra dance s and do a dance or t wo at b re a k- time and make an announc e me n t about open pr ac t ices Another very effect ive means was the us e of a t a pe const ructed by one o f our membe r s that was cleve r f unny a nd inv i t in g a nd played on the l oca l fo lk mus i c prog ram o n the rad i o Al l o f t he a dve r tiseme n t s ar e done in Sept before Ope n Pract i c e a n d we do not all ow a nyone to join us af t e r about the 3rd week s i nce l ea r ni ng is cummu l ative bull bull bull We ve usua ll y netted 2-4 new peopleuro a year t hi s way -- Har il ou Kaub i n Spruce Hil l Morr is

Most recentl y we h ave recruited via word of mou t h and keeping names and numbers of i nter e sted people ( t hose who c o me up t o us at gi g s fo r in stance and say I d li ke to do t hat ) I joined after s eeing a sign posted at t he loca l fol kdance c e n ter bullbullbull Also havi ng a n appren tice group every o ther ye a r r ather than every yea r seems to b e wo r king well since it real l y ta kes t wo years f or n ew dance rs to get good at the danc i ng so our foref o l k can concentrate on teaching one set of new dance rs rathe r than having t o wo rk with seve ral skill l eve ls -- Ka y Schoenwetter Bells-of-the-North Morris

20

gt g gggggg g lt TEAM NEWS

From Vermont comes news of putney Morris Men and squire Fred Breunig who writes to say that they are 100k1ng anead to a good strong year with more members than weve ever had (We are) still exploring Brackley style dances

Fr e d also wr ote of Green Mountain Mu mmers which recently completed its 13th year of touring-- We reallzed 1n the middle of it that we have had the same set of 6 dancers for 10 years He continues Our annual outing on Halloween Weekend is a high point of the year for all of us

Rock Creek Morris Women in our nations capitol sent news that they are adClTiigNorthwest Clog to their repertoire Their schedule for the Spring includes the Annual Equinox Tour (Mar ch 19) Annual Cherry Blossom Tour (April 10) Annual Quail Ale (Ma y 21 - 22) and partiCipating in the Marlboro Ale (May 28-29)

Mor e detailed ne ws from sides follows This section of the newsletter still remains One of the most popular features among reader s Keep sending those tidbits of information on a regular basis

BEREA COLLEGE DANCERS KY

The Berea College Dancers spent the month of January on tour We drove our schoo l bus 6740 miles in a route from Berea to Kansas City Boulder CO Albuqueque Tuscon Obregan Mexi co and Mexi co City We danced the Upton Stick Dance and Mayapple a garland dance throughout the tour and made good use of a brief mummers play

A high point in more ways than one was a climb up the Sun Pyramid at Teotihuaca n on a sunny afternoon January 26 There our lads removed their shirts and performed a rapper set for our Indian guide and the sun god who had been sleeping there since 700AD when the site was abondoned

John H Ramsay

BREAD amp ROSES Toronto Canada

We are practising for May Day and the spring season and looking forward to a v isit to Boston in May Unfortunately we lost our foreman Louise Love for at least a year She got an offer she couldnt refuse in Kuala Lumpar so we waved goodbye to her in January Now we sit in our deep snowbanks waiting for her gloating letters of the heat sunshine and warm sea breezes We figuree shes been there three weeks and should have a Morris team organized by now

21

We hav e div ided up t he d a nces and will work on po lishing up and perhap s a fe ne w dances mtil the sprin g We h ave d e cided we ll d a nce out much mo r e thi s summe r a nd a r e i n the proces s o f organi z i ng tour s and d a nce-ou t s As u s ual we ll s t a r t t he seas o n o f f with our middot wo rm dance o n Ta m Kearney s (o f Fi ddle rs Gr een Folk Club) front lawn the Sunday befor e May Day a nd we ll be o ut in nigh Pa r k a t d awn on Ma y Day with Gr een Fi dd le To ro n t o Mo rri s Me n and h op e f ul l y two n ew t e ams this year Yes bull morr i s is growi ng agai n i n Toron to

Eil een Ma rltwi ck

CASTLEWOOD MORRI S DANCERS Lex i ng ton KY

19 87 wa s a pr e t t y qu i et year fo r us We g o t two new dan ce rs g i ving us a to tal of e i gh t dancers a nd t o mu s i cians We dan c e d (for t he fou r t h year ) a t the Governo r s Derb y Breakfast o n De r by Day Thi s is a n even t where pe ople ge t dr e sse d up to s tand i n lin e s fo r h ours to ge t in t o a huge ten t t o ea t a break fas t sponso r ed by the Gover nor o f Ken t ucky Women we ar e l a borate h a t s a nd h igh-heel e d s h o e s We enjoy i t becaus e t he enj oy u s s o much bullbull an d we g e t t o b r e ak line for b r eakfast We a lso danced at v a r ious outdoor cra ft a nd mu s i c events

This ye a r Castl ewo o d is e xpa nding We have 3-4 new women a nd a cou p l e of new me n Yes MEN Were f acing a t ough d e cision this ye a r - t o mi x or not to mi x On on e hand we like b e ing a women s side a nd hav e plenty o f wome n dance r s Some o f-US-s ti l l remember the old days when the Lexi n g t o n Morris Men wouldnt dan ce in mixe d sets - unless the y needed an extr a p e r s on to ma ke up the s et On the other ha nd we WOUldn t wan t t o d eny anyone the p l easure of Morris dancing and it doesnt look as if LMM ar e going to get back tog e the r

We re l o oki n g forwa r d to the Midwest Ale t his y e ar especially after missing t h e last time a nd will be ther e c ome hell (Michigan) or high wa ter bullbullbull

Sandy Roberts o n

COURT SQUARE DAN CERS Char lottesville VA

The Courts Squ a r e Dancers a wo me ns r i bbon garland and stav e team are going to England J une 15 t h 1 988 We wi l l be touring for t wo we e ks wi t h a var ie ty o f Engl ish s i de s thos e who pe r form bo r der c l o g stave ga r land nor t hwest and co t swo ld At the p re s ent time we ar e the only t eam in the O S and Eng land p e r fo rmi ng tradi t iona l Eng lish r ibbon dan ces We ho p e t o spark an i n tere st i n ribbon du r ing ou r t our

Julia Ki ndr ed

HAPENNY MORRI S Bos to n MA

Hapenny Morris is celebr ating its tenth a nniversary t his year We were started during the bli zzard of 78 when much of Ne w England was closed for severa l days giv ing our founding members the time to have a n organizationa l meeting We are marking the occasion wit h a ve ry

22

bu s y year P lans include orga nizing a trip t o England which will ho p e fully take place this summer during the last part of Jul y We found la s t year that we enjoy traveling together when we went to Ontario twic e for both the London and Toronto Ales

We will be hosting the Phome a gain a gathering of wome n s morris teams This y e ar it will be in Boston for the first time instead of the rural settings of past Phom e s This will be the sixth annual all (almo st) f e mal e ale

Hapen ny dan c es Oddington and Asc o tt under Wychwood The Oddi ng t o n fe e ls like just the right fit for the team styl e s o we will continue wi th i t f o r the third or fourth year We are learning s e v e r a 1 new danc e s made up by team me mbe rs for this season Four ne w me mber s j oine d this year for a total of about 20 Jan Elliot r e mains as foreman and Meg Ryan is squire

Meg Ryan

MARLBORO MORRIS amp SWORD Marlboro VT

Marlboro Morris amp Sword had a wonderful trip to England last s ummer whe n we we re fortunate to see some of the best Morris we had ever witnes s ed Among the notables we re Mr Jorrocks Morris Me n an d 7 Champi o n s Were already hard at wo rk on 198 8 s Marlboro Ale t o be c oshyhosted with the Marlboro Men and l o ok f o rward ot another sea so n of j oyous touring

Andra Barrand

MERRIE MAC MORRIS Wheare NH

Merrie Mac Morri s is warming itse lf with p l e asant though ts o f a delightful rerun of the fall ale th e S B O YNA (Second Biennial Odd Year NoWeare Ale) which turned into a Ri verfest on Sunday morning with a torr e ntial downpour Guest team included Rose amp Thorn (CT) Blackstone Valley (RI) Hearts of Oak (NY) remnants of Woodshole Morri s (MA) a nd Middlesex (MA and the only team besides Merrie Mac not in green vests) In what must be a fir s t we stayed on schedule TOr the first full day of dancing around Co ncord

The team i s in a strong solid gr owth phase (nice for a change) and sl owly adding ne w members t o a n e xperienced core of dancers We limi ted the additio n o f new member s t o late fall and e ven voted on our r e pe tori e f o r the y e ar with Bledington as the mainn ew tradition At least we looked organized on pape r With we ddings of current and past membe rs expected this season a few ne wmiddot dances are planned in keeping with the Merrie Mac tra dition New Years Eve brought our fourth p e rforman c e in Concords First Night festivities Rising to the occasio n Me rrie Mac wrote a uniquely New Hampshireelection year mumme rs play two hours before the performance For collectors of political and ritual ephemera a copy of the play is available

We look forward to the spring NEFFA the Mixed Morris Ale a change of kit and a blow-out May Day in 1988 Traveling dancers c an find us

2 3

Sunday nigh ts 7pm at Eas t Concord Communi ty Cente r and c an a lway s f ind a pl ace to stay

Nancy Wi n neg

MYSTIC GARLAN D Mystic CT

The Mys t i c Ga rla n d i s at the moment very i nv olved in planning a two we ek tou r in Eng l and nex t J u ly Our tour wil l take us f r om Hampshire up to the mid l ands a nd ba c k visi t ing with 1 0 mixed and wo mens teams on th e way We a re dazzled by the variety of dancing o u r host teams promi se us r a nging fr om Cotswold to stick and garland to NW Clog t o Bo r der We are fortunate enough t o have someone i n England who h a s pl anned our i t inerary and con tac ted all the hos t teams [or us Whil e e xc itement mounts he r e were considering a regimen of vita min megadoses and body building t o get us through this rathpr grue ling two week s c bedul e

Joan Nickel

NEW HAVEN MORRI S amp SWORD CT

The l ast year h a s been s omewhat a blur As soo n as one incred i blamp event was over another was demanding immediaLe planning o r preparation Our large-scale home dance evenLs in the last year have inc l uded the Fifth An nual Mixed Morris Ale t wo teammates weddingd a wee kend vis it by Fenstanton Morris the sides 10 Year Reunion (i n Oc t ober ) and the annual Li tchfield Weekend (in January ) Road trips took u s to t he wonderfu l WakeRobin (amp Juggler Me adow) Fa ll Ale a peak event all a round a nd t o the Half Moon Sword Ale in NYC t he ultimate urban event ( 288) Yo u simply must try dancing in Grand Centr al Station s omeday (with perm i t )

Our r e un ion was a huge s ucces s About 50 o f the 93 people who have danc e d out with New Haven made it for the weekend Polks who hung up t he i r bell s year s ago had a few aches and pains after dancing ou t Sa turday Our feas t was we 11 p r epared and we ll ea t en Our vin tage 82 mov i es were shown thanks to Chri s Neurath

We a re now making plans fo r the Sixth Annua l Mi xed Morris Ale to be he l d in the New Haven area a gain this ye ar on Memorial Weekend We are n e go tia ting with Chef John Ryan to drop the cello ( in Denver) and make some jel l o (or white chocolate mou s se again lhis year

Our biggest problems right now are 1) sl ippery floo r at the Gaelic Cl ub wher e we pract ice 2 ) in juries (danc e and nooon-danc e r elatec) 3) mor r i s widow syndrome (all you eVeI do is dance) and 4) old fart s yndrome (s enility and over - sensi t ivity oC older team- members) We ar e prac t i c i ng at the New Haven Gae lic Cl ub o n WEdnesday evenings We put up with t he s li ppery flo o r bec ause the r ent is reasonable and available from 6- 11pm Als o Mic k t he caretaker o pens the bar i n tht e nex t room abou t 8pm a nd has Guines s and Harp on t ap Now tha t s wor th slipping around for bull

Gary Johnson

24

ROSE amp THORN CT

Ro se amp Thorn is moving into the 1988 dance season with s everal new recruits We continue wi th our team tradition Fieldtown and intend to pick up various dances in other traditions The team wil l be having Howard Lesnick Black Jokers foreman over for a workshop this Mar ch The workshop was scheduled for last year but since the entire side was new and drumming Fieldtown basics we were just not ready to e xpand our horizons

Last fall we were invited to dance a large gig at the Rose land House Arts Pestival in Woodstock to a very enthusiast ic crowd A local paper gave us an entire front page plus 2 inter i or page wri te-up Pho t o- up following that event a nd by the time we danced a Halloween private party two weeks later peop le knew about (understood) Ho rris danc ing in Northeast Connecticut That gig also became our farwell tour for Bruce Wiegold who wa s he aded for New Zealand for as l ong as money he ld out In a recent card he men t ioned that the summer morr i s season is i ll full swing

In November and December th e team practiced and performed the Ample fo rth Sword Dance Plans are underway to secure a grant for some rea 1 swords The band iron is to o heavy and sounds dead bu t has served u s well since 198 4 Other 1988 e vents included the 5th Mixed Morris Ale hosted by New lIaven the 5- Day Wander with the Hearts of Oak and the NoWheare Ale with Mer ri e Ma c Al l were good times and we thank them all bull

Tom French

SPRUCE HILL MORRIS PA

Weve finally a ch ieved some consistency this year in that we lost f ew dancers and have a good co r e of veterans About a half d o z en sprouts joined us i n September and we re amazed at how quickly t hey ve fa l len into step

After our b e love d Ann Di xon passed away Bonnie Bl air OConnor (Co r me rly of Ma r lboro Mo rris Sword) s tepped to the r ore Shes been teaching us l Imington and were hanging onto ol d faithful field t own as we l l a s some Duckling t on Wer e reall y lucky to hav e Bonni e as our fore~an - s he s done wel l by us

In the last year or two we have had severa l Spruce Hi l l K ingses slng Wedding s The rea lly ni c e t hing about the re l a t ionships between the two teams is that though t hey stil l rema i n dis t i nctl y sepa r a te weve been a ble to c oll aborate effective ly - mos t especially on our a nn ual spring t our now appr oa c h i ng 4

Also weve had several births of Spruce Hill babies and fina lly after thre e boys Cinda Edgerton b l e s sed us with Emily Were hclPPY that the littl e rug rats havent kept t heir moms from practicing with t he team for too long either

Maril ou Raines Kaubin

25

cfU4ERICofIn 940RR15 ClEW5LllrIR cIa James C Brickwedde 31D1 111h ave So Minneapolis MN 664D7

ell UBLIC~IO OF ~GLISH C~REMOtllfiL 9)tI(1

We hav e div ided up t he d a nces and will work on po lishing up and perhap s a fe ne w dances mtil the sprin g We h ave d e cided we ll d a nce out much mo r e thi s summe r a nd a r e i n the proces s o f organi z i ng tour s and d a nce-ou t s As u s ual we ll s t a r t t he seas o n o f f with our middot wo rm dance o n Ta m Kearney s (o f Fi ddle rs Gr een Folk Club) front lawn the Sunday befor e May Day a nd we ll be o ut in nigh Pa r k a t d awn on Ma y Day with Gr een Fi dd le To ro n t o Mo rri s Me n and h op e f ul l y two n ew t e ams this year Yes bull morr i s is growi ng agai n i n Toron to

Eil een Ma rltwi ck

CASTLEWOOD MORRI S DANCERS Lex i ng ton KY

19 87 wa s a pr e t t y qu i et year fo r us We g o t two new dan ce rs g i ving us a to tal of e i gh t dancers a nd t o mu s i cians We dan c e d (for t he fou r t h year ) a t the Governo r s Derb y Breakfast o n De r by Day Thi s is a n even t where pe ople ge t dr e sse d up to s tand i n lin e s fo r h ours to ge t in t o a huge ten t t o ea t a break fas t sponso r ed by the Gover nor o f Ken t ucky Women we ar e l a borate h a t s a nd h igh-heel e d s h o e s We enjoy i t becaus e t he enj oy u s s o much bullbull an d we g e t t o b r e ak line for b r eakfast We a lso danced at v a r ious outdoor cra ft a nd mu s i c events

This ye a r Castl ewo o d is e xpa nding We have 3-4 new women a nd a cou p l e of new me n Yes MEN Were f acing a t ough d e cision this ye a r - t o mi x or not to mi x On on e hand we like b e ing a women s side a nd hav e plenty o f wome n dance r s Some o f-US-s ti l l remember the old days when the Lexi n g t o n Morris Men wouldnt dan ce in mixe d sets - unless the y needed an extr a p e r s on to ma ke up the s et On the other ha nd we WOUldn t wan t t o d eny anyone the p l easure of Morris dancing and it doesnt look as if LMM ar e going to get back tog e the r

We re l o oki n g forwa r d to the Midwest Ale t his y e ar especially after missing t h e last time a nd will be ther e c ome hell (Michigan) or high wa ter bullbullbull

Sandy Roberts o n

COURT SQUARE DAN CERS Char lottesville VA

The Courts Squ a r e Dancers a wo me ns r i bbon garland and stav e team are going to England J une 15 t h 1 988 We wi l l be touring for t wo we e ks wi t h a var ie ty o f Engl ish s i de s thos e who pe r form bo r der c l o g stave ga r land nor t hwest and co t swo ld At the p re s ent time we ar e the only t eam in the O S and Eng land p e r fo rmi ng tradi t iona l Eng lish r ibbon dan ces We ho p e t o spark an i n tere st i n ribbon du r ing ou r t our

Julia Ki ndr ed

HAPENNY MORRI S Bos to n MA

Hapenny Morris is celebr ating its tenth a nniversary t his year We were started during the bli zzard of 78 when much of Ne w England was closed for severa l days giv ing our founding members the time to have a n organizationa l meeting We are marking the occasion wit h a ve ry

22

bu s y year P lans include orga nizing a trip t o England which will ho p e fully take place this summer during the last part of Jul y We found la s t year that we enjoy traveling together when we went to Ontario twic e for both the London and Toronto Ales

We will be hosting the Phome a gain a gathering of wome n s morris teams This y e ar it will be in Boston for the first time instead of the rural settings of past Phom e s This will be the sixth annual all (almo st) f e mal e ale

Hapen ny dan c es Oddington and Asc o tt under Wychwood The Oddi ng t o n fe e ls like just the right fit for the team styl e s o we will continue wi th i t f o r the third or fourth year We are learning s e v e r a 1 new danc e s made up by team me mbe rs for this season Four ne w me mber s j oine d this year for a total of about 20 Jan Elliot r e mains as foreman and Meg Ryan is squire

Meg Ryan

MARLBORO MORRIS amp SWORD Marlboro VT

Marlboro Morris amp Sword had a wonderful trip to England last s ummer whe n we we re fortunate to see some of the best Morris we had ever witnes s ed Among the notables we re Mr Jorrocks Morris Me n an d 7 Champi o n s Were already hard at wo rk on 198 8 s Marlboro Ale t o be c oshyhosted with the Marlboro Men and l o ok f o rward ot another sea so n of j oyous touring

Andra Barrand

MERRIE MAC MORRIS Wheare NH

Merrie Mac Morri s is warming itse lf with p l e asant though ts o f a delightful rerun of the fall ale th e S B O YNA (Second Biennial Odd Year NoWeare Ale) which turned into a Ri verfest on Sunday morning with a torr e ntial downpour Guest team included Rose amp Thorn (CT) Blackstone Valley (RI) Hearts of Oak (NY) remnants of Woodshole Morri s (MA) a nd Middlesex (MA and the only team besides Merrie Mac not in green vests) In what must be a fir s t we stayed on schedule TOr the first full day of dancing around Co ncord

The team i s in a strong solid gr owth phase (nice for a change) and sl owly adding ne w members t o a n e xperienced core of dancers We limi ted the additio n o f new member s t o late fall and e ven voted on our r e pe tori e f o r the y e ar with Bledington as the mainn ew tradition At least we looked organized on pape r With we ddings of current and past membe rs expected this season a few ne wmiddot dances are planned in keeping with the Merrie Mac tra dition New Years Eve brought our fourth p e rforman c e in Concords First Night festivities Rising to the occasio n Me rrie Mac wrote a uniquely New Hampshireelection year mumme rs play two hours before the performance For collectors of political and ritual ephemera a copy of the play is available

We look forward to the spring NEFFA the Mixed Morris Ale a change of kit and a blow-out May Day in 1988 Traveling dancers c an find us

2 3

Sunday nigh ts 7pm at Eas t Concord Communi ty Cente r and c an a lway s f ind a pl ace to stay

Nancy Wi n neg

MYSTIC GARLAN D Mystic CT

The Mys t i c Ga rla n d i s at the moment very i nv olved in planning a two we ek tou r in Eng l and nex t J u ly Our tour wil l take us f r om Hampshire up to the mid l ands a nd ba c k visi t ing with 1 0 mixed and wo mens teams on th e way We a re dazzled by the variety of dancing o u r host teams promi se us r a nging fr om Cotswold to stick and garland to NW Clog t o Bo r der We are fortunate enough t o have someone i n England who h a s pl anned our i t inerary and con tac ted all the hos t teams [or us Whil e e xc itement mounts he r e were considering a regimen of vita min megadoses and body building t o get us through this rathpr grue ling two week s c bedul e

Joan Nickel

NEW HAVEN MORRI S amp SWORD CT

The l ast year h a s been s omewhat a blur As soo n as one incred i blamp event was over another was demanding immediaLe planning o r preparation Our large-scale home dance evenLs in the last year have inc l uded the Fifth An nual Mixed Morris Ale t wo teammates weddingd a wee kend vis it by Fenstanton Morris the sides 10 Year Reunion (i n Oc t ober ) and the annual Li tchfield Weekend (in January ) Road trips took u s to t he wonderfu l WakeRobin (amp Juggler Me adow) Fa ll Ale a peak event all a round a nd t o the Half Moon Sword Ale in NYC t he ultimate urban event ( 288) Yo u simply must try dancing in Grand Centr al Station s omeday (with perm i t )

Our r e un ion was a huge s ucces s About 50 o f the 93 people who have danc e d out with New Haven made it for the weekend Polks who hung up t he i r bell s year s ago had a few aches and pains after dancing ou t Sa turday Our feas t was we 11 p r epared and we ll ea t en Our vin tage 82 mov i es were shown thanks to Chri s Neurath

We a re now making plans fo r the Sixth Annua l Mi xed Morris Ale to be he l d in the New Haven area a gain this ye ar on Memorial Weekend We are n e go tia ting with Chef John Ryan to drop the cello ( in Denver) and make some jel l o (or white chocolate mou s se again lhis year

Our biggest problems right now are 1) sl ippery floo r at the Gaelic Cl ub wher e we pract ice 2 ) in juries (danc e and nooon-danc e r elatec) 3) mor r i s widow syndrome (all you eVeI do is dance) and 4) old fart s yndrome (s enility and over - sensi t ivity oC older team- members) We ar e prac t i c i ng at the New Haven Gae lic Cl ub o n WEdnesday evenings We put up with t he s li ppery flo o r bec ause the r ent is reasonable and available from 6- 11pm Als o Mic k t he caretaker o pens the bar i n tht e nex t room abou t 8pm a nd has Guines s and Harp on t ap Now tha t s wor th slipping around for bull

Gary Johnson

24

ROSE amp THORN CT

Ro se amp Thorn is moving into the 1988 dance season with s everal new recruits We continue wi th our team tradition Fieldtown and intend to pick up various dances in other traditions The team wil l be having Howard Lesnick Black Jokers foreman over for a workshop this Mar ch The workshop was scheduled for last year but since the entire side was new and drumming Fieldtown basics we were just not ready to e xpand our horizons

Last fall we were invited to dance a large gig at the Rose land House Arts Pestival in Woodstock to a very enthusiast ic crowd A local paper gave us an entire front page plus 2 inter i or page wri te-up Pho t o- up following that event a nd by the time we danced a Halloween private party two weeks later peop le knew about (understood) Ho rris danc ing in Northeast Connecticut That gig also became our farwell tour for Bruce Wiegold who wa s he aded for New Zealand for as l ong as money he ld out In a recent card he men t ioned that the summer morr i s season is i ll full swing

In November and December th e team practiced and performed the Ample fo rth Sword Dance Plans are underway to secure a grant for some rea 1 swords The band iron is to o heavy and sounds dead bu t has served u s well since 198 4 Other 1988 e vents included the 5th Mixed Morris Ale hosted by New lIaven the 5- Day Wander with the Hearts of Oak and the NoWheare Ale with Mer ri e Ma c Al l were good times and we thank them all bull

Tom French

SPRUCE HILL MORRIS PA

Weve finally a ch ieved some consistency this year in that we lost f ew dancers and have a good co r e of veterans About a half d o z en sprouts joined us i n September and we re amazed at how quickly t hey ve fa l len into step

After our b e love d Ann Di xon passed away Bonnie Bl air OConnor (Co r me rly of Ma r lboro Mo rris Sword) s tepped to the r ore Shes been teaching us l Imington and were hanging onto ol d faithful field t own as we l l a s some Duckling t on Wer e reall y lucky to hav e Bonni e as our fore~an - s he s done wel l by us

In the last year or two we have had severa l Spruce Hi l l K ingses slng Wedding s The rea lly ni c e t hing about the re l a t ionships between the two teams is that though t hey stil l rema i n dis t i nctl y sepa r a te weve been a ble to c oll aborate effective ly - mos t especially on our a nn ual spring t our now appr oa c h i ng 4

Also weve had several births of Spruce Hill babies and fina lly after thre e boys Cinda Edgerton b l e s sed us with Emily Were hclPPY that the littl e rug rats havent kept t heir moms from practicing with t he team for too long either

Maril ou Raines Kaubin

25

cfU4ERICofIn 940RR15 ClEW5LllrIR cIa James C Brickwedde 31D1 111h ave So Minneapolis MN 664D7

ell UBLIC~IO OF ~GLISH C~REMOtllfiL 9)tI(1

Sunday nigh ts 7pm at Eas t Concord Communi ty Cente r and c an a lway s f ind a pl ace to stay

Nancy Wi n neg

MYSTIC GARLAN D Mystic CT

The Mys t i c Ga rla n d i s at the moment very i nv olved in planning a two we ek tou r in Eng l and nex t J u ly Our tour wil l take us f r om Hampshire up to the mid l ands a nd ba c k visi t ing with 1 0 mixed and wo mens teams on th e way We a re dazzled by the variety of dancing o u r host teams promi se us r a nging fr om Cotswold to stick and garland to NW Clog t o Bo r der We are fortunate enough t o have someone i n England who h a s pl anned our i t inerary and con tac ted all the hos t teams [or us Whil e e xc itement mounts he r e were considering a regimen of vita min megadoses and body building t o get us through this rathpr grue ling two week s c bedul e

Joan Nickel

NEW HAVEN MORRI S amp SWORD CT

The l ast year h a s been s omewhat a blur As soo n as one incred i blamp event was over another was demanding immediaLe planning o r preparation Our large-scale home dance evenLs in the last year have inc l uded the Fifth An nual Mixed Morris Ale t wo teammates weddingd a wee kend vis it by Fenstanton Morris the sides 10 Year Reunion (i n Oc t ober ) and the annual Li tchfield Weekend (in January ) Road trips took u s to t he wonderfu l WakeRobin (amp Juggler Me adow) Fa ll Ale a peak event all a round a nd t o the Half Moon Sword Ale in NYC t he ultimate urban event ( 288) Yo u simply must try dancing in Grand Centr al Station s omeday (with perm i t )

Our r e un ion was a huge s ucces s About 50 o f the 93 people who have danc e d out with New Haven made it for the weekend Polks who hung up t he i r bell s year s ago had a few aches and pains after dancing ou t Sa turday Our feas t was we 11 p r epared and we ll ea t en Our vin tage 82 mov i es were shown thanks to Chri s Neurath

We a re now making plans fo r the Sixth Annua l Mi xed Morris Ale to be he l d in the New Haven area a gain this ye ar on Memorial Weekend We are n e go tia ting with Chef John Ryan to drop the cello ( in Denver) and make some jel l o (or white chocolate mou s se again lhis year

Our biggest problems right now are 1) sl ippery floo r at the Gaelic Cl ub wher e we pract ice 2 ) in juries (danc e and nooon-danc e r elatec) 3) mor r i s widow syndrome (all you eVeI do is dance) and 4) old fart s yndrome (s enility and over - sensi t ivity oC older team- members) We ar e prac t i c i ng at the New Haven Gae lic Cl ub o n WEdnesday evenings We put up with t he s li ppery flo o r bec ause the r ent is reasonable and available from 6- 11pm Als o Mic k t he caretaker o pens the bar i n tht e nex t room abou t 8pm a nd has Guines s and Harp on t ap Now tha t s wor th slipping around for bull

Gary Johnson

24

ROSE amp THORN CT

Ro se amp Thorn is moving into the 1988 dance season with s everal new recruits We continue wi th our team tradition Fieldtown and intend to pick up various dances in other traditions The team wil l be having Howard Lesnick Black Jokers foreman over for a workshop this Mar ch The workshop was scheduled for last year but since the entire side was new and drumming Fieldtown basics we were just not ready to e xpand our horizons

Last fall we were invited to dance a large gig at the Rose land House Arts Pestival in Woodstock to a very enthusiast ic crowd A local paper gave us an entire front page plus 2 inter i or page wri te-up Pho t o- up following that event a nd by the time we danced a Halloween private party two weeks later peop le knew about (understood) Ho rris danc ing in Northeast Connecticut That gig also became our farwell tour for Bruce Wiegold who wa s he aded for New Zealand for as l ong as money he ld out In a recent card he men t ioned that the summer morr i s season is i ll full swing

In November and December th e team practiced and performed the Ample fo rth Sword Dance Plans are underway to secure a grant for some rea 1 swords The band iron is to o heavy and sounds dead bu t has served u s well since 198 4 Other 1988 e vents included the 5th Mixed Morris Ale hosted by New lIaven the 5- Day Wander with the Hearts of Oak and the NoWheare Ale with Mer ri e Ma c Al l were good times and we thank them all bull

Tom French

SPRUCE HILL MORRIS PA

Weve finally a ch ieved some consistency this year in that we lost f ew dancers and have a good co r e of veterans About a half d o z en sprouts joined us i n September and we re amazed at how quickly t hey ve fa l len into step

After our b e love d Ann Di xon passed away Bonnie Bl air OConnor (Co r me rly of Ma r lboro Mo rris Sword) s tepped to the r ore Shes been teaching us l Imington and were hanging onto ol d faithful field t own as we l l a s some Duckling t on Wer e reall y lucky to hav e Bonni e as our fore~an - s he s done wel l by us

In the last year or two we have had severa l Spruce Hi l l K ingses slng Wedding s The rea lly ni c e t hing about the re l a t ionships between the two teams is that though t hey stil l rema i n dis t i nctl y sepa r a te weve been a ble to c oll aborate effective ly - mos t especially on our a nn ual spring t our now appr oa c h i ng 4

Also weve had several births of Spruce Hill babies and fina lly after thre e boys Cinda Edgerton b l e s sed us with Emily Were hclPPY that the littl e rug rats havent kept t heir moms from practicing with t he team for too long either

Maril ou Raines Kaubin

25

cfU4ERICofIn 940RR15 ClEW5LllrIR cIa James C Brickwedde 31D1 111h ave So Minneapolis MN 664D7

ell UBLIC~IO OF ~GLISH C~REMOtllfiL 9)tI(1

cfU4ERICofIn 940RR15 ClEW5LllrIR cIa James C Brickwedde 31D1 111h ave So Minneapolis MN 664D7

ell UBLIC~IO OF ~GLISH C~REMOtllfiL 9)tI(1