Spring 10 - Morris Dancing

My Experience of Morris Dancing

by Kathryn Cesarz

Last Monday we had a lively and entertaining cultural experience here in our very own manor. As students gathered in the Great Hall to wait for the performance to start, Dr. Kingsley announced the Forest Morris Dancers and in they came. The colourful bunch included a man wearing a rainbow fringed jacket who played the accordion, followed by a crew of men in socks with jingle bells on them, funny crossed ribbons over their chests, and straw hats encircled with bright silk flowers. The energetic dances involved lots of hopping to maximize the sound of the jingle bells, as well as hitting sticks together (usually involving two people) and waving handkerchiefs in the air.

The mood was cheerful and humorous. During one of the first numbers, a man came around with, what we found out later, a dried sheep's bladder on a stick, bopping women on the head. He told us that anyone who had been hit with the bladder was guaranteed to get pregnant in the next year. This news was received with chuckles and groans. One song involved a "virgin sacrifice" of a Harlaxton student from the crowd, who was escorted to the center of the circle of dancers. For the final pose of the dance, she was lifted above their shoulders, which the crowd received with whistles and cheers of delight. The dancers had their final dance and proceeded out of the Great Hall.

The audience was then ushered into the Conservatory where a group of women in green wool skirts and clogs performed clog dances for us. The dances were linked historically, they told us, to clogs worn to work in factories during the industrial revolution.

After the clog dancers were finished, the men who had earlier performed the stick-and-handkerchief dances for us entered, one at a time, as silly characters - as in a traditional English Panto play. The story involved a doctor, a farmer, a soldier, and a couple of gaudily dressed "women". The play ended with a sing-along of some folk songs, a couple of which were familiar to American ears (most of us knew "A Bicycle Built for Two".)

After the performance, students and performers met in the Bistro to continue the musical festivities late into the night.

The visit from the Forester's Morris Dancers was an enjoyable evening of English culture.