The Morris Federation

The UK's largest association of morris and traditional dance teams

Practices go online

The Morris Federation launched a series of online workshops, talks and demos over Winter 2020-2021.  Here is a review of our workshop about running online practices over Zoom, hosted by the Committee on 3rd January.

“Two of us, from Worthing-based mixed Cotswold side Sompting Larks, were looking for ideas not only to liven up our weekly lockdown practice sessions, which have recently shown signs of ‘Zoom Fatigue’, but also ways to engage a wide range of ages from 11–75. As a newly-formed side we have grown over the past year from 8 to 18 and we want to keep everyone engaged!

“The 15 participants had developed a variety of teaching, social and technical skills to hold their sides together online:-

video-conference“Teaching – some sides had developed ingenious ways to cope with the vagaries of Zoom

  • selecting figures from a clog side’s existing dances and putting them together to create simple individual dances
  • learning a dance by walking it through aided by patterns and diagrams on the floor
  • practising alongside a video of the side dancing or of another side performing a dance everyone knows
  • sending a video the week before to members so that they could practice each day before meeting up online – very impressive!
  • ‘Dancing out’ on Zoom with a guest side. Everyone in kit and each side taking a turn to dance

“Socialising – other sides had abandoned practice sessions altogether

  • weekly newsletters, alternating with quizzes
  • former members invited to share their memories
  • re-visiting old events
  • allocating one person each week to host a session on a subject of their choice

“Technical – discussions about pinning videos to the Zoom screen and reducing lag on music became a little technical, so links to online advice and assistance would be extremely useful or a Q&A session, where questions are sent in advance and then later published as a help sheet?

“and finally, some sound advice:

“Do what you can and put a hold on what you can’t”

by Barry & Stella Williams, Sompting Larks, Worthing, West Sussex

Image by Alexandra_Koch from Pixabay 

Leeds Morris Men go digital

Leeds Morris Men in West Yorkshire say: “Like many Morris teams we have not danced, entertained or danced the tradition in 2020 as we would have once done. However we have turned to the digital media to entertain and keep the traditions alive. Our 2020 annual Dales tour, mummers plays and other Morris activities have turned to other forms of production and expression. Below are our latest Christmas videos for your enjoyment.

Lockdown Mummers Play (May 2020) 14 mins:

Meet our horse, Dick (August 2020) 3 mins:

‘The Night Before Christmas’ (December 2020) 3 mins:

Mummers Plays online

Many of our teams who perform short seasonal folk plays, often called Mummers Plays, have moved their plays online this year, due to the pandemic.  Here are some offerings:

Purbeck Mummers from Dorset (17 mins):

Furness Morris from Cumbria (12 mins):

Ditchling Mummers from East Sussex (26 mins):

… and finally …

Ellington Morris from Berkshire (9 mins) with their:

Boxing Day Mummers’ Play – Lego Movie

 

Workshop – How to Love Tunes you Hate!

The Morris Federation launched a series of online workshops, talks and demos over Winter 2020-2021.  Here is a review of our first instrument workshop in December 2020 covering loads of ways to take the most boring, old-hat, overplayed tunes … and kick them back into life!

Will Allen
Will Allen

“Will Allen’s talk  ‘How to love tunes you hate’ was a difficult subject to put over to an audience of around 70 people with presumably varying abilities, but I reckon that most would have come away with at least some ideas providing food for thought; I certainly did.

“He started with a suggested unliked tune ‘Uncle Bernard’s’, and promptly demonstrated numerous very subtle differences in playing the tune.

“He went on to discuss many techniques, waggling the left hand for rhythmic effect and unusual off beat emphasis on the left hand of the melodeon were two ideas I found worth experimenting with.

“Whilst mainly concentrating on melodeon, the fiddle and bouzouki were also used to demonstrate various points, so hopefully it would have been appreciated by most of those attending.

by Ian Bradshaw

Will Allen is the leader of Chiltern Hundreds Northwest Clog Morris and you may have also seen him playing for Tower Ravens Rapper, Motley Morris and Kent Korkers & Pork Scratchin’s.

Will is a professional melodeon and fiddle player.  He plays melodeon with Martin Clarke in the duo Brown Boots, and plays melodeon and fiddle with the Urban Folk Theory ceilidh band, in addition to many other collaborations.

Follow him on Facebook at Will Allen Folk Musician (Facebook) or subscribe to Will Allen’s YouTube Channel.

How to Make Rapper Swords by Frank Lee – online talk

The Morris Federation launched a series of online workshops, talks and demos over Winter 2020-2021.  Here is a review of a demonstration & talk by Frank Lee in December 2020 to over 60 people on how he makes rapper swords.

The rapper sword he made in the filming for the demonstration was sword number 2549.  He has made 433 sets to date which have been sold worldwide.

Frank Lee
Frank Lee

“Frank went through all the steps and covered how he resourced his materials, and how to make the tools, as well as how to actually make the swords. He used videos and photos to make the process clear and, naturally, included many anecdotes along the way.

“Fascinating to see how every storey of his house is used in the process, along with many of the rooms. There were more steps than I thought there would be and quite a few required an adaptation or making of jigs to ease the job along. The ultimate justification for us hoarders of spare this-and-that in case it might come in useful one day.

“Afterwards he kindly answered additional questions from the audience.

“Remember:

  1. Never unbind a coil of spring steel in your kitchen, and
  2. Look after your sword – a lot of skill, ingenuity, love and hard work has gone into making it.

“Of course we (Ripon Spur Rapper) have a set of Frank’s swords.

“Now where did I put that spare lorry brake drum …

by Bob Barker of Ripon Spur Rapper in North Yorkshire

The demonstration was kindly run by Frank Lee, whose website is http://rapper-swords.co.uk.  Frank is a member of Carlisle Sword and Clog, Hexham Morris, Feet First Appalachian Cloggers, and Flag and Bone Gang.

Donations from participants raised money for Halsway Manor, National Centre for Folk Arts in Somerset.

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