watervole | Entries tagged with morris

Fifth metatarsal shaft fractures

Fractures to the shaft of the 5th metatarsal are often referred to as "dancer’s fractures.

No prizes for guessing which morris dancer currently has her foot in a air boot... (Looks rather like something you'd wear to walk on the moon...)

Apparently, the fast spins in dances put a lot of strain on the long thin bone between the little toe and the ankle. That's the 5th metatarsal.

I went over trying to correct a turn where I realised I was going the wrong way. Fell (not sure if it was before or after I broke the bone) and hit the floor (albeit with a slight reflexive roll. I assumed I'd sprained my ankle, and as I had a very bad sprained ankle five or six years ago, I did everything right this time. I'm glad to say that I didn't try to walk on it. With the help of my wonderful fellow dancers, I got to a chair (Rest), found a bottle of some kind of drink in the freeze compartment of the fridge in the hall) (Ice), raided the first aid kit for a bandage (Compression) and propped my foot up on a chair (Elevate) RICE

Got to the doctor the following morning, who suspected an ankle fracture. Down the hospital at 2pm, through X-ray and various other departments at truly amazing speed - it was a quiet time of day, and we didn't need anything major, but had a diagnosed break from the X-ray. But 4pm, we were heading for home with air boot, crutches, instructions and the assurance of a follow up appointment next week!

And lovely friendly staff throughout. When the NHS works well, it can be like magic. (I hope our next government will help the NHS work like this more often)

So, I've been spending a lot of time with my foot raised up on a pile of cushions on top of a stool, and icing it. I'm allowed to take the boot off when icing and also in bed. I'm allowed to do a little bit of walking, but no more than a few minutes at a time.

It should heal up without surgery as long as I follow orders, but I'm probably looking at 2-3 months before normality. I'll be able to walk on it quite a while before it will be safe to dance on. I see physiotherapy in my future, but I've had lots of practice at doing what physios tell me :)

I mentioned recently that one of my videos had gone viral nine years after posting it. I thought at the time that some influencer had picked up it and that was the trigger, but I've been looking at Google Analytics and apparently the boost came from within YouTube.

This is the Analytics page showing what proportion of hits come from inside and outside YouTube - less than 1% is external.

We actually owe the success to Miss Moonshine!

Watch on YouTube

Henry's dance was shown on the sidebar of videos you might like to watch, and that's when the rise began. It's the 'talented, but slightly quirky' dance niche.

The first, fairly gentle increase, began with a video of an American broom dancer on his sidebar and that got a bit of traction, then YouTube showed it with Miss Moonshine (a much more popular video than the American broom dance one) and Vroom! the graph is really clear..

Now, YouTube is showing it on the sidebar of more videos, and also putting in on people's home pages of 'videos suggested for you'

Once I realised what was happening, I composed a playlist which included the broom dance and four of the best Anonymous Morris dances that are on my channel. That's now producing a noticeable rise in hits on some of the Anonymous Morris dances - with most hits coming via the playlist . Too soon to say how far they will go - they're less 'quirky' than the broom dance. But I notice that I was being offered two of them on a sidebar when I went to look again at Miss Moonshine. I expect them to have a gentle rise, but not the 150K hits that the broom dance now has!

I've had this video uploaded on You Tube for about 9 years.

We used to go and visit my mother-in-law in Kent for Christmas, and stay on for the New Year. On New Year's Day, one or more of the local morris teams dance outside the local pub, the Checkers. It's a good dance spot - there's never masses of traffic, and there's a good audience who come to watch.

Being used to this tradition, my son Henry came down with morris kit and broom one year and asked the local team if they'd like him to do a broom dance - rather a speciality of his at the time.

They said yes, and this video was the result. I'm guessing my husband recorded it, as I was playing the concertina for the dance.

It's attracted a reasonable number of hits over time, but over the last few weeks the numbers have gone up and up, and the curve shows no sign of flattening out.. The last couple of days, it's been gaining 10K views per day! Over a thousand likes now.

I've linked from it to the official Anonymous Morris playlist to see how many people follow over onto that. Only a day's sample so far, so not statistically significant, but about 10 people subscribed yesterday, whereas 2-3 is more normal.

I wonder who/where was the post that started the snowball rolling - it seems to be going completely under its own momentum now.

Watch on YouTube

Danced with Anonymous Morris at a school fete today (Mayday).

The sun shone for just the right amount of time. The children did their maypole dances, and we danced morris in-between their spots. Lovely relaxed atmosphere with parents and children chilling out and playing.

It was on the school playing field, which meant the children could also play on the play equipment there, and there were also some picnic tables and hay bales.

Result - children happy for far longer than if it had been in an open field (which I gather is where the event normally is), and parents happily chatting away. The school seemed to do a good trade in tea, cakes, etc. and it was delightful two hours.

I also got to chat with the teacher teaching the maypole, which was a nice bonus.

First post-Covid morris practice. Been a year and a half since the last time we were together.

New hall, several of the team still avoiding meeting people indoors, so a lot different.

But we had a blast!

It's good to remember why I do morris - and here's the answer - Dancing makes you feel alive. Playing music with other people makes you feel alive.

Dancing as a team to music played by your friends? Beyond price.

Charging down the hall with my friend Paul, both of us doing giant step hops - I felt myself again.

(Most of the team still have major fitness issues to recover from, but Paul and I were in pretty good shape)

This is the first time I've held out for a proper ten minute warm up - and it certainly paid off for me at least. And a proper cool-down. No aches or pains today, and I was moving really freely yesterday in spite of a lingering problem with my Achilles tendon/calf muscle.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/687354.html

Trust me, this is brilliant!

The range of entries is great and the winner was my personal favourite.

Watch on YouTube

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/676993.html

A lovely piece of music that some of you will probably know already.

The composer was George Butterworth. I came to his music via morris as he was an important early member of the Edwardian morris revival. Like Vaughn Williams, he sought inspiration in traditional folk music and was a keen collector of folk songs.

"George Butterworth: The Banks of Green Willow." (Watch on YouTube)

One of the earliest pieces of film of morris dance in existence shows George dancing - and he was a very good dancer.

"George Butterworth" (Watch on YouTube)

He died in the Battle of the Somme, and Banks of Green Willow is often played to commemorate the fallen.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/661525.html

If you like to know what traditional dances were recorded in your locality and you live in Yorkshire, then this is a must have.

If you like a good overview of the inter-relationships between different forms of dance and customs like plough stots and rushbearing, then this is also a very useful book.
It's not a book that writes a history for you; what it does it to list village by village all known records of morris/sword dances and related customs. This tends to make it a book to dip and browse rather than read all in one chunk. However, if you do persevere and read it cover to cover, several interesting patterns start to emerge.
For instance - we tend to think of customs as belonging to very specific areas: processional morris (North West morris) is seen as being a Manchester/Lancashire tradition, but there are many recorded instances in Yorkshire as well.
Plough gangs on Plough Monday are not just East Anglian, there were plenty in Yorkshire too.

All kinds of interesting references to all kinds of things: women morris dancers in 1842 in Almondbury; the decoration of rushcarts with silverware; a "Sailor's Plough" (in more than one place) that went out on Plough Monday as well as the more usual farm boys, the term 'rapier' dancing; which might be an origin of the term 'rapper'; the text of a sword play from Gayle that I hadn't seen before; the Grenoside sword dancers wearing clogs; an interesting discussion on what is 'correct' (a traditional dancer from Grenoside complained that Sharp's version wasn't what they actually did); a reference to sword dances as part of a Robin Hood event (Robin Hood events were massive at one time); the style of dance done by the Flag and Bone Gang has its origins here in the village of Roos; some plough gangs called themselves "Vessel Cuppers";
On page 101, there is a 1903 use of the word 'raper' (which predates Sharpe's visit to the North East in 1910), which to my mind at least knocks out the theory that Sharpe misunderstood someone referring to a 'wrapper' round a sword handle. (though I admit it is raper rather than rapper here. But add a Geordie accent and you may be there.)

There are one or two points where I disagree with Davenport eg. On page 72 he assumes that changing direction when doing a high clash automatically means a change of hands: I've done dances where that was not the case.
On page 77 he assumes that a reference to a three man sword dance would be a real struggle and assumes that a party of three would not perform a dance. As a member of a sword dance team that regularly performs three man dances, I politely beg to differ- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjoYrdS240&t=5s

My only real gripe with the book is that all the pictures are unlabelled and you have to go to the picture reference page to find out who and when the dancers are. In my copy, I've written the details under each picture. (and that he failed to read all of Dommet's notes on Lingdale and thus overlooked the same figures that Allsop missed.)

All in all, it's a good little book with plenty of interesting pictures and a collection of information that must have taken many years to put together. If you enjoy dance history, particularly sword dances or Plough Monday customs, then I definitely recommend it. It's nicely printed on good quality paper. Why not ask for a copy for Christmas?

You can buy it from Hallamshire Traditions and the price is very reasonable -https://www.hallamtrads.co.uk/sales.html

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/656811.html

It's a very busy time of year for morris dancers. This is when everyone suddenly contacts you and says "Can you perform at our May Day (or event close to May Day) fete?"

To which the inevitable answer is that you need to book a year in advance to get Anonymous Morris for May Day and the bank holiday weekend will also be taken about a year beforehand.

However, we do squeeze in some extras... (especially if it's for children)

It's also approaching Wimborne Minster Folk Festival time of year, which means I'm working with several local schools teaching children traditional dances to perform at the festival. I enjoy it, the kids are wonderful, but it's still tiring.

30 June - North West Morris at Allenbourn school.
1 May - Cub pack in Hamworthy - Border Morris
2 May - Maypole and longsword dancing at Pamphill school
3 May - morris practice
4 May - no dancing!
5 May - paid booking - 2 hours of morris and maypole dancing (great venue, we go there every year)
6 May - no dancing!
7 May - Morris and maypole paid booking at Blandford Georgian Fayre (another great venue - but it was very hot this year...)
- longsword practice in the evening
8 May - day off! (collapsed and did a lot of resting)
9 May - Maypole and longsword dancing at Pamphill school
10 May - Beaver pack - Border morris
- morris practice

Just had another local school ask if I can teach some kids before the Folk Festival in June. That would be on Thursdays. I think I can do it (did this school last year), but it's hard work as it's two hours in the afternoon with no break. One class followed by another. Just got to find a volunteer musician and ideally another dancer to help (the catch is that only retired and unemployed members of the team are free during the school day, and I'm already roping them in for all the other school sessions....)

The catch is that I'm constitutionally incapable of turning down a request to teach any form of traditional dance to the next generation.....

That's how I originally started teaching maypole dancing.

The school where did did our morris practice mentioned one day that they'd found an old maypole in a store room and could we teach maypole dancing? I said 'yes' by reflex and then went away to learn how. I'm now an expert on maypole dancing. Old dances new dance, overseas dances, take your pick.

I can take a group who have never maypole danced before and get a decent pattern on the pole in less than ten mins.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/649491.html

Paranoidangel asked how I got into morris dancing.

When I was about ten, I did country dancing at the church hall. We also went to local barn dances now and then.

(Odd really, I grew up not far from Manchester, yet never encountered North West or Carnival morris while growing up.)

When I went to university, the first society I joined was the country dancing society. Some of the society also did morris dancing (Cotswold), which was the first time I'd encountered morris. We didn't do much morris, but it sparked an interest.

When I got married and moved to Dorset, I went to Wimborne Folk Festival (which is very local to us) and for the first time encountered morris dancing head on in large quantities. There, I met Dorset Buttons, the local ladies North West team. They were the team closest to where I lived, and it looked like a lot of fun.

That's where it all started. Since then, I've danced with another North West team, a Border Morris team, started a longsword team, taught maypole dancing and longsword and dabbled in rapper and Cotswold.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/646961.html

This is Nonesuch Morris, whom I've only just come across. They're a mixed team from Bristol and do traditional Cotswold morris that is truly excellent.

Just look at the precision of the teamwork and the leaps and the crisp hanky work.

Poor hanky work can look terrible, which is why Border morris sides shy away from hanky dances, but when they're done to this standard, they can look fantastic.

Watch on YouTube

I'm just about to email them and ask if they'd like to come to Wimborne Minster Folk Festival next year. I'm dance director of the festival and I'd love it if they could come.

One of the reasons I'm posting so little here is that festival work is taking up a lot of my time at the moment. The festival isn't until next June, but this is the time when lot of dance teams make their decisions about where they are performing next summer. Thus, a heavy correspondence load.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/640831.html

We were dancing at Swanage Folk Festival this weekend and I had the usual use of our team first aid kit, a child with a scratched finger needing a plaster (it's hardly ever team members needing it).

However, not long after, a dancer twisted a foot mid-dance. He swapped out and tossed his stick to me and we finished the dance without missing a step. After the dance was over, I got out the emergency ice pack and a crepe bandage and applied both. By the afternoon (with the bandage re-applied) he was well enough to walk the procession, but sensible enough not to try stepping.

There are days when I'm very glad that I carry that kit around wherever we go.

(The item that I deliberately included in the kit, but hope never to have to use, is an eye pad. One has to be realistic about the risk of stick injuries when it comes to Border morris.)

Apart from having the right kit to treat the injury, the other big plus for me was that the dancer in question knew I could instantly replace him and we swapped without affecting the dance at all. I work hard to learn every position in every dance (which is not to say that I never make mistakes) and it means that I can fill in almost anywhere. Some dancers only ever learn a single position. They'll dance second in line on the left in dance A and in position 3 in dance B and so on.

I tend to visualise dances from an overhead viewpoint, so I see the overall pattern and that means I remember "First corners cross" rather than "I swap places with Henry". I've also been dancing for most of my life, so half the patterns are second nature anyway.

Crossposts: https://watervole.livejournal.com/639271.html

I'm definitely on too many committees.

I've just done the AGM minutes and updated the constitution for Anonymous Morris (but still have all sorts of stuff relating to bookings for next year and updating dance notation on the web site to do)

I have to hold a mini AGM for Southern Star Longsword tonight to see if we have enough people to form a committee. Don't need that many posts, but I'd like it if someone competent offered to do publicity as that's a major job for a small, new, dance group. I'm doing all the jobs for Southern Star at present, but sometimes that's what you have to do to get something off the ground.

I'm working on a new constitution for the local Allotment Society -which is a devil of a job. The Chair doesn't really believe in Constitutions and proposed we adopt one out of an old Allotment book she had, as it was short. The fact that it set a minimum committee number of three more than we currently have, that it assumed a totally different relationship between the landlord and the Allotment Society than is actually the case and several other things that simply didn't fit our circumstances was clearly irrelevant. I don't think she'd bothered to read it.

I'm also doing masses of stuff for Wimborne Minster Folk Festival...

I'm feeling tired and short of free time and I really want to sit down for several days and do nothing but knitting.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/620830.html

ONe of the up sides of unemployment is more free time.

It seems to be an age since I was regularly able to post here. Commuting into Dorchester to work at the bookshop took up far too much time; then I'd get home feeling absolutely wiped and collapse.

I'm still feeling very stressed, but I'm finding ways of coping.

Therapeutic granddaughter is high on the list. Her parents are very understanding and we have permission to loan her when needed (as long as we do sensible things like giving them advance warning).

I'm also taking up pipe and tabor with a vengeance. Vengeance is almost a scarily apropriate word in this case. Being around a beginner pipe and tabor player can be a painful experience. A tabor pipe is all overblow notes. This gives it the ability to cut through a lot of background noise as it's high pitched and piercing.

Because it's a three hole instrument, it can be held in one hand and all the fingering is done with that one hand - two fingers actually hold the pipe and the other two and the thumb are used to cover the holes. That's why so many of the notes are overblows as there are a limited number of combinations of three holes.

The advantage of a one-handed pipe is that the other hand is free to beat a small drum.

This is what makes pipe and tabor such a good stress buster. By the time you're trying to play a pipe which is all overblow notes (ie, you don't just have to remember which holes to cover, but also how hard you have to blow) and, at the same time, beat a regular rhythm with the drum (a bit like trying to rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time), you have no spare mental space for the things that are stressing you.

The moment you think of something else, you'll make a mistake with the music and have to start all over again.

I won't scare you with my really bad playing. Here's someone who can play much better than I can. If you scroll along to around the one minute mark, you'll get a close up of the musician. Pipe and tabor were a very combination for medieval dancing, and for morris before fiddles became widespread.

"GMM at Bledington" (Watch on YouTube)

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/598441.html

Being a member of a Border morris team means sewing an awful lot of tatter jackets. This one, modelled by the ever-gorgeous Oswin is the last one I made by hand.

We used have a rule that everyone made their own jacket, but it rapidly became apparent that everyone meant to do it and very few actually got around to it. So, I ended up doing most of the jackets with help from one or two others. Every darn one of them had vast numbers of tatters stitched on by hand. During a season's dancing, a fair number of them become detached. I took to double-stitching the edges of each tatter, but even that didn't prevent it entirely.

My Mother in Law, the wonderful Molly, asked me recently if I'd like an advance birthday present of a sewing machine. I practically bit her hand off. (I'd had one or two second-hand machines in the past, but never managed to get them to work properly). My new machine is a Brother LS14, a basic model, with no fancy features, but it works and is dead easy to use. Tatter jackets have suddenly become easier and several hemming and repair jobs for trousers, etc that had been sitting around for ages have suddenly been done.
I'm starting to work through the existing jackets, reinforcing each row of tatters with machine stitching. It'll be a long job, even with the machine, but I'd never even have attempted it by hand.

I've done one new jacket already for our new banjo player, and I'll shortly do another one for our drummer.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/592675.html

Well, good for me anyway. Look at this lovely lad in his morris costume!

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/578954.html

One of the people who came to our morris workshop at Purbeck Folk Festival has now joined a morris side in London.

I definitely count that as a success!

Here's hoping that someone, somewhere recruits a member for us...

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/566374.html

Anonymous Morris go to the pub. Between us, we order 2 cokes, several J2O, one tea, one coffee and a lemonade.

I fear the reputation of morris dancers is forever ruined...

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/559344.html

Alex_beecroft on LJ mentioned this group and I had to go for a look.

Four Hundred Roses are from Yorkshire and do belly dancing to morris music (and occasionally add some morris figures to their dances).

I rather like the costumes. They make me think of Victorian pub landladies in a modern musical.

Crossposts: http://watervole.livejournal.com/558970.html

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Judith Proctor

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Judith Proctor's Journal

Ramblings on morris dancing, 17th century re-enactment, and gardening

Entries tagged with morris

broken bones

Why a video goes viral

When a video goes viral

Morris

Back dancing

Sidmouth Horse Trials 2020

Banks of Green Willow

Book Review of "Under the Rose, Yorkshire's Traditional Seasonal Dances" by Paul D. Davenport.

Exhaustion...

Get to Know you Meme

Tradiational Cotswold at its best.

Morris first aid

Too many committees

Music

I love sewing machines

Something good in the Daily Mail!

Morris Karma

Drinking ain't what it used to be...

Four Hundred Roses

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