The Morris Federation

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

Morris in the Museum in Bedford

It is not often Morris dancing can be said to have made history but Redbornstoke Morris (1976-2018) and Bedfordshire Lace Morris (1981-2016) are the focus of a new display at The Higgins Museum in Bedford.

The display uses the the story of these two sides to explore the nature of “Tradition” and how traditions can change over time.  Titled Innovation & Tradition: 40 years of Morris, the display is on until October 2021 so there will still be time to see it after the current lockdown. The display was curated by Chas Leslie, a volunteer at The Higgins who also danced with Redbornstoke Morris for 20yrs.

Both based in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, Redbornstoke Morris created their own style of dances, and Bedfordshire Lace was the first women’s morris team in Bedfordshire. The display contains items various items donated or loaned by members of the two teams including the rag coat Jenny Howard wore as the Bedfordshire Lace Fool and the smock Jerry Griffiths wore as Fool in the early years of Redbornstoke Morris.

See the exhibition: Innovation & Tradition: 40 Years of Morris at the Higgins Museum, Bedford:  https://www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk/Exhibitions/40_Years_of_Morris/

Redbornstoke & Bedfordshire Lace Exhibition Higgins Museum 2020

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.”

Zooming up the Sun

May Day is a popular day for Morris dancing, as a start to the morris ‘season’ of performing, rather than practising.  Some teams get up and ‘dance up the sun’ at dawn (about 05:31).  Then go off to a pub for a hearty breakfast.

But this year it is different.  With social distancing, morris teams are turning to Zoom, or other conferencing software, so they can meet up virtually and enjoy the first morris event of the year.

Here are 2 sets of Hammersmith Morris dancing ‘Bampton Sidestep’ on May Day, very distanced from each other, and dancing nowhere near their local pub.  They also had to make their own breakfasts.

And further north, Pecsaetan Morris from Sheffield dancing ‘Haste to the Wedding’ at dawn on May Day.

Nationally – and internationally – there has also been a series of Lone Morris Festivals started by Kath Brickell of Anonymous Morris from Poole, Dorset.  See the results of the May Day Lone Morris Festival by searching for the hash tag #MayDayLMF.  See posts tagged #MayDayLMF on ‘How many Morris Dancers are on Facebook?’.  See previous ones at: #LoneMorrisFestival on Sat 21st March 2020 and #LoneMorrisFestival on Sat 25th March 2020.

More info on Hammersmith Morris Men and Pecsaetan Morris

Learn the Sailor’s Hornpipe

The third solo dance to be released in the ‘Isolation Instructionals’ series of videos made during the Covid-19 outbreak is a Sailor’s Hornpipe.

It is danced and taught by Martyn Harvey of Crook Morris from Kendal, Cumbria, with musicians Jen Wilson and Frank Lee.  Martyn also tells us why he learned it, who taught it to him and when it should be danced.

As with all our Instructional videos, a link to the Notation and Music is included in the description, along with ‘jump to’ links so you can go back to wherever you left off learning.

See The Morris Federation’s Youtube channel for this video and more as they become available.

St George’s Day Lone Morris #StGeorgesLMF

Following the International success of the #LoneMorrisFestival on Sat 21st March 2020, it was repeated as the St George’s Day bash on Saturday 25th April 2020, being the nearest Saturday to St George’s Day.  Morris dancers up and down the country put on their morris kit and danced and played their instruments in their gardens or close locality.

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, with a dance she wrote called ‘Regent’s Bark’.  Here it is set to music by Mark Rogers:

Simon Pipe from Warwickshire danced a 15-second broom dance:

See more dance-based fun by searching for the hashtag #StGeorgesLMF.  See posts tagged #StGeorgesLMF on ‘How many Morris Dancers are on Facebook?’

The next Lone Morris Festival will be at dawn (around 05:31) on Friday 1st May, although this should be a silent Lone Morris Festival so as not to annoy the neighbours.  Participants are encouraged to post the name of their morris/dance team and the name of the dance they are lone dancing, with the hashtag #MayDayLMF.

Kath Brickell of Anonymous Morris from Poole, Dorset, started the first Lone Morris Festival.

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