Morris dancers set to zoom up the sun on May morning
News release for Friday 1 May 2020
Morris dancers around Britain are going to inventive lengths to dance up the sun on May morning, despite the coronavirus lockdown.
They will welcome the traditional start of summer with a repeat of a global online festival that has seen dancers take imaginative steps to make up for the lack of partners.
Jenny Strike, of Bournemouth-based Holly Copse Molly, trained her two shelties (Shetland sheep dogs), called Chestnut and Pandemonium, to join a dance in her back garden in Child Okeford, Dorset.
Her dance – called Regent’s Bark – was part of the global Lone Morris Festival for St George’s Day.
Dancers around the world posted videos of themselves dancing in full costume in their gardens –alone, or with press-ganged family members. Some danced silently, without music.
One persuaded his neighbours to join in a socially-distanced hand-clapping dance in the street. Another dressed her washing line in a shirt and top hat and danced around it.
Hexhamshire Lasses and Hexham Morris Men of Northumberland plan to dance in unison inside their homes at 5.32am on May morning, linked to their musicians with the Zoom conferencing software.
The morris festival is one of a number of virtual traditional events over the May Day weekend.
- Oxford’s 500-year-old May Morning singing will be maintained with a stitched-together Hymnus Eucharisticus, recorded by the 28 choristers of Magdalen College in their homes. It will go live at 6am: http://www.facebook.com/magdalencollegechoir/
- Adults and children are being invited to join a virtual parade by sending in clips of themselves dancing towards their phones with home-made maypoles. https://maypolemovers.wixsite.com/mysite/virtual-maypole-parade-2020
- On Sunday 3 May 2020, the Hastings Jack-in-the-Green parade is being turned into an NHS fund-raiser. Residents are being asked to dress up, decorate their homes and join in a massed drum-banging at 3.30pm. https://www.hastingsjitg.co.uk/
The Lone Morris Festival was dreamed up by Kath Brickell, of Anonymous Morris in Poole, Dorset. She said: “I posted my idea on Facebook to lift the spirits, and thought that a few people might join me.
“When clips of lone morris dancing started to be posted, it was clear that the Lone Morris Festival had gone worldwide, with people joining in from America, Canada, New Zealand and the Ukraine.
“Dances were done with sticks, handkerchiefs, feather dusters, wooden spoons, a horseradish, and even a rotary washing line. It was amazing to see so many happy smiling people.”
Pauline Woods-Wilson, President of The Morris Federation, said: “We have been sad to hear of the deaths of several members of the morris community from the coronavirus.
“Technology means we can keep up customs that began centuries before the internet. Some of the results have been a bit quirky, but all the best English traditions involve a little madness.”
CONTACTS:
Pauline Woods-Wilson, President of The Morris Federation
Simon Pipe, representing The Morris Federation
Kathy Brickell, Anonymous Morris, Poole, Dorset, initiator of the Lone Morris Festival
Jenny Strike, Holly Copse Molly Dancers (dances with dogs)
Brian Bell, Hexham Morris Men (zooming at 5am)
Fee Lock, Secretary of The Morris Federation, and Hastings Jack in the Green joint organizer
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Find dancers’ videos on Facebook with hashtags #LoneMorrisFestival and #StGeorgesLMF and #MayDayLMF: https://www.facebook.com/groups/82385077841/
Please avoid the outdated term “morris men”: all three national morris organisations welcome male and female participants. There is NO EVIDENCE that morris dancing was ever a pagan fertility rite.
VIDEO (free to download and use/edit):
Jenny Strike and her dancing dogs: https://vimeo.com/413260111/81cb216476
Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/82385077841/permalink/10157376725937842/
Simon Pipe’s 15-second broom dance: https://vimeo.com/412755317/85f4a09fff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqnMnrferMo
A compilation video of the first Lone Morris Festival, compiled by Owain Boorman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqnMnrferMo
Last Updated: April 2020
