Small world syndrome. I had to phone Barclays today, and the lady on the other end of the phone (after discovering the account was for a morris team) told me about her parents who were morris dancers who regularly entered competitions on the Isle of Man. She recalled being a mascot for the side as a little girl, and the precision of the costumes and the pristine white pumps they danced in. Carnival morris. I asked her about the music, as I was curious. In that generation, they were still using traditional tunes rather than pop, but it was still recorded music. (I'm guessing that very precise routines may be helped in some ways by totally consistent music)

So, I decided to post a bit more about carnival morris.

This article is copied from a page owned by Thelwall Morris.

It was interesting and I didn't figure I could put it any better. (and I wanted it here so I didn't lose it)

In essence, competition drives change and may end up changing the very thing it is trying to preserve.

Morris to Carnival

(Geoff Bibby was interviewed on Resonance FM Radio on this topic)

Whenever traditions are under threat there are always those who try to set up situations to help their continuance. This has always been true of Morris Dancing.

There have been many peaks and troughs in the popularity of Morris dancing and interested parties will endeavour to revive flagging teams, re-awaken traditions that are dormant or collect and preserve dances from 'dead' sides - so that these dances are able to undergo a renaissance. Whatever form the input takes, this input itself inevitably has an effect on the tradition.

After WW1 many sides found themselves unable to raise a team - the men simply weren't available. The responses to this situation were variable:

Some sides didn't dance again.
Some sides re-formed as mixed adults.
Some surviving dancers taught boys and some taught sides of mixed sex children.

Most of the 'old' dancers tried to maintain the 'maleness' of the dances.

Teams continued to struggle and the cancellation of many 'traditional' events such as Whit and May festivals during WW2 caused further breaks in continuity. It became rare for boys to dance and girls took it up in large numbers.

In the north of England and particularly in the north - west, competitions were organised in an attempt to encourage troupes once more to be a part of the village festivals. To this end the idea was very successful, but much was changed, and some would say lost, in the process.

Prizes were awarded to the winning troupes in various age categories and there was a massive revival. However the structure which needed to be created for the competitions to succeed, changed both the form and style of Morris dancing very rapidly over a very short time span and in any traditional context, revolutionary change, rather than evolutionary change, is unusual, not to say rare.

Points were lost if lines weren't straight, so movement in dances became much more regimented and shape changes in figures became slower to give more precise control. Regular stepping was rewarded, and the judges agreed on specific rules that regularised exactly what was 'correct'. The rules stipulated what was to be assessed and how it was assessed. Thighs had to come up to the horizontal, pumps had to be clean, innovation in costume and dance gained points.

There was thus a very active encouragement for the dances and costumes to be changed annually to meet the demands and standards set by the competitions. Regional differences in dance and in style of performance could not be maintained if a troupe wanted to win and their dance and style did not match the criteria!

So regional differences were soon sacrificed for the sake of winning prizes and prestige. However the rapid growth of these 'carnival' morris troupes soon swamped the village fetes and festivals and the competitions became unwelcome to organisers. Competitions now take place as internal events in carnival morris circles.

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I grew up in the North West and remember local festivals always having morris dancers performing: groups of young girls with pom poms dressed very much like American cheerleaders. At the same time I was also aware of a different sort of morris dancer: groups of adult men in much more traditional looking costumes.

It makes sense that the style of competitive morris changed to meet the judging criteria. I wonder what would have happened if the judging criteria had been along the lines of more qualitative judgments on historical authenticity?

It's a very interesting question. Ironically, I suspect the judges originally thought that they were preserving authenticity. I think it was the focus on straight lines that made the biggest difference (though lines are important to traditional North West dancers as well). That seems to have led to the very slow changes between figures, which is the stylistic difference that really jumps out at me.

I'm also guessing that the judges never thought to mark the band. Somehow, the music got taken for granted, and thus changed totally.

The catch is that if you mark only on matching the past, you kill innovation.

Competition in rapper dancing (the only other form of 'morris' to have regular competitions) has been a positive influence. However, rapper had competitions historically.

Rapper is a miners dance from the NE.

I wonder if the morris men you recall were Cotswold or North West dancers.

There was certainly a time when you would see more Cotswold dancers in the North West than people doing the traditional dance from the region.

If they were dressed in white, then they were Cotswold morris dancers.

A lot of the early North West revival teams were women (Men tried to keep Cotswold male as long as possible and hence steered women towards the North West dances)

Have you seen Morris: A life with bells on ?

Wonderfully funny film - basically Strictly Ballroom with Morris dancing ...

I admit to owning a copy. It was filmed close to where I live and I actually watched them the day they were filming at Wimborne Folk Festival.

It's an enjoyable film.

A very interesting article. It explains all!

Oh that's fascinating! Most of what I know about Morris and folk dancing I learned from reading Elsie Oxenham at a young age, and I've always known it was, umm, less than realistic :)

Don't underestimate Elsie Oxenham. She's more accurate than you think. She knew a lot of people in the early morris revival and wrote some of them into her books under other names. She's actually regarded as a good source by morris historians.

She was a member of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. It's important to realise that women were a lot more involved in the early revival than they were a bit later on.

Read - http://www.ju90.co.uk/ctfolk/ctfolk5.htm

I knew she was knowledgeable (have found some fascinating stuff on some of the folk she used as avatars) but I always thought it might be a tad rose-coloured romanticised...

Or maybe not :)

I still love the books, of course.

From Morris to Carnival Morris

Morris to Carnival

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