Last Monday night, the Foresters Morris Dancers and the Greenwood Cloggers paid us a visit for an evening of traditional music and dancing. Morris dancing like this is really a Victorian recreation of an older dancing tradition that has it's roots back in the days of the Old Religion. Village dancers would go, with bells around their legs and sometimes masked, about villages and fields dancing, hitting sticks together, or hitting tree trucks all of which was designed to wake the spirits of the trees and fields, reminding them that spring was coming. The Victorians, faced with the disenchantment of the new industrial era, tried to revive these traditions much like we have madrigal dinners. These days, as you can see from some of the pictures, Morris dancing is being kept alive be middle aged men and women having a grand old time.As you can also see above, I was pulled into the line and was required to hit sticks with a partner between dancing in circles. It was not as easy as it looks but I got the hang of it. One of my students was in the center of the dancers who told her to just hold her arms out and go stiff but didn't tell her they would be picking her up and spinning her in the air. She loved it just the same.
The dancers were quite festively dressed in ribbons and flowers...again more in keeping with their more typical appearance at spring festivals.
The Greenwood Cloggers gave the gents a rest and did some traditional steps from Lancastershire in the conservatory. This was followed by a "Plough Play" which as the name suggests was a bit of a spring time frivolity that included a farmer and plenty of the boys in drag. Ah those Brits!
When their performances were done, the whole lot of them and all of us heading down to the cellar pub to share pints of ale and relax. The group taught us some traditional songs from around the British Isles and we even managed to push back the tables and chairs for some more dancing. I left by 10 pm but they were still going strong...I assume they left before dawn but you never know!
The dancers were quite festively dressed in ribbons and flowers...again more in keeping with their more typical appearance at spring festivals.The Greenwood Cloggers gave the gents a rest and did some traditional steps from Lancastershire in the conservatory. This was followed by a "Plough Play" which as the name suggests was a bit of a spring time frivolity that included a farmer and plenty of the boys in drag. Ah those Brits!
When their performances were done, the whole lot of them and all of us heading down to the cellar pub to share pints of ale and relax. The group taught us some traditional songs from around the British Isles and we even managed to push back the tables and chairs for some more dancing. I left by 10 pm but they were still going strong...I assume they left before dawn but you never know!
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