The Morris Federation

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

Archive Film of Morris Dancing in Horsham 1989

West Sussex Morris Unwrapped – Morris in Horsham 1989

MF AGM Horsham 1989On 21st July, Screen Archive South East, in collaboration with partners at the West Sussex Record Office, made available a variety of archives. Through their portal, called West Sussex Unwrapped, they present a film that features a festival of Morris Dancing through the sleepy streets of Horsham in 1989, while the West Sussex Record Office blog features records, photos and historical information about Morris Dancing in West Sussex. The film and the blog will be available throughout the summer.

The film shows teams from all over the country arriving at the market town and dancing their way through the streets and squares on the occasion of  The Morris Federation’s AGM and weekend of dance in 1989, hosted by local team Magog.  See: Male and Female teams of Morris Dancers and folk dancers perform their routines in the town centre in Horsham (film 4063)

Dancers featured in the film include teams still going strong today, including Jackstraws Morris and Windsor Morris

Find out more about: Screen Archive South East and the West Sussex Record Office.

The same film is also on the BFI player at: Watch Morris Dancers invade Horsham 1989 – BFI Player

Liberation Lockdown in Guernsey

Are Belles and Broomsticks Morris in Guernsey the first morris side to dance out this season without having to social distance or follow any other restrictions?

They gave us this report, the full details of which will be in the next ‘Isolation Edition’ of the FedExtra magazine.

Belles and Broomsticks Morris, Guernsey
Belles and Broomsticks Morris, Guernsey, by Tom Videlo

“Unlucky for some, but taking advantage of the fine weather, we decided that Monday 13th July 2020 would be our first dance-out of this year’s season.

We decided to dance two ‘sets’ at two venues.

The first one at the Driftwood Hotel at Perelle, who now has the distinction of being the first place this season in the UK to host unrestricted Morris dancing. We had a small but appreciative audience and danced a set of five dances. One of which, appropriately, was Le Catioroc, a ‘round’ dance referencing the legend of the Witches dancing around Le Trepied dolmen on the Catioroc headland south side of Perelle. This is a dance of our own devising in the Ducklington tradition which we have renamed the ‘Canard-lington’ tradition.

Our second venue was at the Hotel Fleur du Jardin.  Here again, we entertained the outside diners with six stick or hanky dances of various traditions.  The Fleur now has the distinction of being the first place to host us performing our own Liberation Day lock-down jig ‘To Town on a Pushang’ (*) in the Canard-lington tradition:

A ‘Pushang’ is our local name for a bicycle. Liberation Day on 9th May celebrates the end of five years of Nazi occupation of the islands. Everyone went to town to greet the British liberating forces.”

Calling time on full-face black makeup

Letter from the Committee to members, 3rd July 2020

In the light of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Joint Morris Organisations (*) are issuing a statement that calls on all three organisations to eliminate the use of full-face black or skin tone makeup.  Your committee fully supports this call.

Our traditions do not operate in a vacuum. While no morris dancer wants to cause offence, we must recognise that full-face black or other skin tone makeup is a practice that has the potential to cause deep hurt.

Morris is a living tradition and it is right that it has always adapted and evolved to reflect society.  In 2016, we issued guidance to our members with respect to using face paint as a disguise, and we welcome the fact that many long-standing teams who used to wear full-face black makeup have chosen to use masks, alternative colours, or other forms of disguise.  We now believe we must take further steps to ensure the continued relevance and inclusivity of the tradition.

Morris is a unique cultural tradition of which we should be rightly proud. We want people from all races and backgrounds to share in this pride and not be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable by any element of a performance.

As a committee we have come to the conclusion that it is no longer a matter of personal preference but of taking a stand. Accordingly, a motion will be put forward to the AGM in September to ask member teams to review their policies and practices and move that The Morris Federation should not renew membership for teams where individuals still continue to use full-face skin tone makeup.

This decision has been considered for a long time and we do not take this action lightly. While not a direct reaction to recent nationalist articles, we should recognise that the use of full face black make-up can encourage and embolden these sentiments.

We understand that such a move may distress and upset people we know as friends.  We would like to reach out to member teams to engage with us on this matter so that we can move forward together.  Specific comments may be sent to feedback@morrisfed.org.uk – we may not be able to respond to everyone immediately, but we will give proper consideration to all comments from members, so please identify yourself and your team when mailing us.

We will be urging all of our members to consider this issue seriously and to vote on the motion that will be discussed at the upcoming virtual AGM to be held on Saturday 26 September 2020.

We expect that this story will be picked up by the press and we would urge all members to be aware of the wider issues when engaging with the media or in their use of social media.  We understand that no member seeks to contradict our aims for inclusivity, but it is not each dancer’s intent that matters, rather how they – and the Morris – are perceived by the outside world.

Joint Morris Organisations statement

The JMO (*) statement is:

“Our traditions do not operate in a vacuum. While no morris dancer wants to cause offence, we must recognise that full face black or other skin tone makeup is a practice that has the potential to cause deep hurt.

Morris is a living tradition and it is right that it has always adapted and evolved to reflect society. Over the past few years, many morris teams have already proactively taken the decision to stop using full face black makeup to avoid causing offence or hurt. We now believe we must take further steps to ensure the continued relevance and inclusivity of the tradition.

The Joint Morris Organisations (The Morris Federation, The Morris Ring, and Open Morris) have therefore agreed that each of them will take action to eliminate this practice from their membership. Teams that continue to use full face black or other skin tone make up will find they are no longer part of the mainstream morris community, be covered by JMO public liability insurance, or invited to take part in events organised or sponsored by the JMO.

Morris is a unique cultural tradition of which we should be rightly proud. We want people from all races and backgrounds to share in this pride and not be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable by any element of a performance.

3rd July 2020”

(*) The Joint Morris Organisations comprises The Morris Federation, The Morris Ring and Open Morris

Play celebrates Sidmouth Women heroes and the Fatberger

New mummers/guisers play celebrates Sidmouth Women heroes and the Fatberger!

A brand new traditional mummers/guisers play was released for Midsummer that celebrates Sidmouth Women across the ages. Local storyteller and writer, Janet Dowling (and President of The Morris Federation 1996-1999), has taken the tradition of mumming which occurs in midwinter and mainly by men, and developed it to one that occurs on mid summer and done only by women. It includes noted women of Sidmouth, plus a Dragon, a Saint, a Pick Axe Queen and the Fatberger, and with underlying themes of environment, tolerance and the usual life, death and rebirth.

Janet says:

Sidmouth Fatberger
The Fatberger

“ Mumming is a very old tradition, dating from medieval times, and most of the plays that are still done date from the 19th century. They feature heroes like St George and Nelson with villains like the Turkish knight and dragons. Sidmouth is lucky that they have a mummers team who have a play from 200 years ago which they take out just before Christmas. I’m an avid supporter of them, but I also felt that women should have a go.”

“I took about 2 years to develop it but it wasn’t until the Fatburger raised its head that the final character fell into place! Originally we hoped to do it at Sidmouth Sea Fest, on the streets for Midsummer, and then at Sidmouth FolkWeek. We called ourselves Sidmouth Sisters Guisers (an alternative name for mummers) and started rehearsals in the beginning of March. Then we were into lock down. I thought it was never going to happen.”

The Pick Axe Queen
The Pick Axe Queen

“But I was inspired by the Mayday videos that were made by Morris teams videoing themselves individually on their phones and then stitching it together. So we practised on Zoom, and then each speech was recorded separately on our phones. Kyle Baker did his magic and stitched them in to one video. We are not the RSC – and there are several bloopers – but that’s all part of the fun! There are several motifs from the mummers play but most importantly the women heroes of Sidmouth are real and we feel it’s a real celebration!”

The Sidmouth Sisters Guisers are Linda Williams, Ruth Lewis, Ann Bishop, Alexa Baker, Barbara Murphy, Sheila Pratt, Sarah Reis and Liz Harris. Music was played by Brian Lewis. The video is edited by Kyle Baker.

Clog dancers unite online for mass performance

With their traditional May Bank Holiday event cancelled, Hadrian Clog decided they would still take the opportunity to dance together, if only virtually.

On Monday 25th May they  gathered online with friends from the clog dancing community to celebrate the summertime and the beginning of their season of dancing, bringing together as many clog dancers and musicians as possible to perform the well-known Sam Sherry Waltz.

What started as a few Hadrian Clog team members ended up as over 80 performers from all over the country, including musicians who play for dance teams joining in.

One keen clog dancer, stranded in New Zealand, even stayed up late into the night to join in the celebration.  In all there were dancers from over 20 clog teams, as well as several individual clog dancers, who performed first the Sam Sherry Waltz and then a selection of hornpipes.

The event gained coverage on both BBC Radio Newcastle and BBC Look North.

For anyone who wants to try and find themselves on the Zoom screens, or watch the interview on the BBC the dances are posted on the Hadrian Clog Facebook page @HadrianClog and also on their YouTube channel.

Find our more about Hadrian Clog from Hexham in Northumberland.

Connect with us