Originally published at ABC Arts Online, March 2015
If the stories are true, then
Morris dancing in Australia endured some inauspicious beginnings. There is
certain evidence that as early as 1796, a year of several violent exchanges
between Aboriginals and white settlers (and the year Australia’s first beer was
brewed), some convicts dared to caper in Parramatta, only to be given a
flogging as punishment.
There is also a suggestion
that Morris dancing occurred in Melbourne in the 1930s, yet it was not until
the 1970s, on the back of the nationwide folk revival, that Morris gathered
momentum and teams, or ‘sides’, were established. The hotbed of Morris in those
days was undoubtedly Perth, with the oldest continuous side to this day being
Perth Morris Men, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013.
“Most of the original sides
were single-sex, and generally danced in the Cotswold or North West
traditions,” says Tim Beckett, current Squire of national body the Australian
Morris Ring. “Over the years, there has been a welcome shift to mixed sides and
a strong growth in the Border (Welsh) tradition. Many sides now dance a number
of traditions – Border and Cotswold is the usual mix – but will have a
particular preference for one.”
He adds that there are,
surprisingly, just 200-300 Morris dancers in Australia, spread across 26 sides.
An ingrained part of English
folk culture for centuries, and still fairly healthy today in the UK, the
origins of Morris dancing are hazy and inexact. It is generally accepted that
the art has Moorish roots (the word ‘Morris’ evolving from ‘Moorish’), while
there are possible references to Morris in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well (1604-5). Morris dancing also has
associations with paganism, thanks largely to one of the most important days on
the Morris calendar being May Day and its celebration of fertility.
The modern understanding of
the art, however, stems from pivotal British folklorist Cecil Sharp, who
despite censoring the sexual and supposedly heathen aspects of Morris, was
responsible for a rise in the dancing’s popularity in the first years of the 20th
century. His research was mainly confined to the Cotswold style of Morris, and
it is this style – drawn from the picturesque Cotswold region of England – that
dominated in years to come.
Cotswold is widely danced in
Australia, along with North West style (originating from England’s north-west)
and Border style (from the English counties that border Wales). These three
main forms distinguish themselves from each other by different attire and props
and, to a certain degree over the years, gender.
Michelle Cowans is among the
younger dancers with the Albion Fair side in Sydney, which has evolved to be
all-female, through happenstance rather than policy. Albion Fair dances the
North West style.
“I think the North West style
of Morris is more feminine,” she says, “and certainly some of our dances are
indicative of working women in factories in northern England, but having said
that, many of the other North West sides in the country have male members.”
Though many Australian Morris
sides were determinedly male-only at their inception in the 1970s, according to
Beckett these restrictions fell away during the 1980s and 1990s, with only
three such sides remaining today.
“There aren’t really dances
for males and females per se,” says Cowans. “Everyone can dance any dance.
Traditionally the dances are for men, so women wouldn’t have been doing any of
them, but I think women have always had an active part in Morris dancing in
Australia.
“There’s more a distinction
between dances from different styles. You can really see the difference between
Cotswold Morris and North West Morris, for example. Cotswold dancers wear bells
on their legs and dance with sticks or hankies. We wear wooden clogs and dance
with bells, ribbon sticks or garlands. When we dance out we need a hard
surface, so you can hear our clogs on the ground. Cotswold can dance on grass,
because it’s more about the jingle-jangle of the bells and the sound of the
sticks clashing.”
Beckett says that though
English ex-pats still make up a large percentage of Morris dancers in this
country, Australian sides have incorporated various local flavours into their
styles, to the degree that there is now something of a general Australian
Morris way.
“Australian Morris tends to
be more robust and generally danced faster than its English parent, and a
little less tied to the bible of Morris dance, Lionel Bacon’s A Handbook of Morris Dances,” he says.
“Australian folk tunes have infiltrated
the Morris repertoire, and dances written in Australia, but within the existing
traditions, are now in the set lists of most Australian sides. For example,
‘Bound For South Australia’, danced to the tune of the same name, was written
by the Adelaide Morris Men and has now spread across the country and to New
Zealand.”
And while more alternative
takes on Morris dancing are gathering momentum in the UK - through sides with a
more devotedly pagan bent, or with Gothic leanings – there is no such innovation
in Australia, with the exception, Beckett says, of “a bit of Steampunk Morris,
but within the existing traditions”. It is also interesting to note that while Morris
dancing in Australia is, as you’d expect, overwhelmingly white and Anglo-Celtic,
Beckett has danced with people of Italian, Vietnamese, Indian and Chinese
extraction. “It’s pretty welcoming and creed and caste simply don’t matter,” he
says.
The life of an Australian Morris
dancer, taking Cowans and Albion Fair as an example, entails practicing once a
week, and the occasional ‘dance out’, sometimes with fellow Sydney side Black
Joak. These generally take place in town centres, shopping centres, fetes and
civic occasions. May Day remains a key date for Morris dancers, while also
important are ‘Ales’, which are dances at a side’s AGM, or the celebration of
an anniversary – Black Joak’s 10th took place in November 2014.
Major annual events for
Albion Fair include Bondi’s Festival of the Winds, the Shakespeare in
Gloucester festival on the NSW mid-north coast (sadly not scheduled for 2015)
and, as for many Australian sides, the National Folk Festival in Canberra,
which takes place every Easter.
“The National Folk Festival
is very important as it gives the Morris the chance to get a number of sides
together to showcase particular traditions or styles, to teach and learn new
dances and to dance together,” says Beckett. “A ‘massed’ dance with upward of
100 dancers and a combined Morris band is an awesome sight to behold.”
Such events are vital to
exposing dancing to new audiences and, crucially, potential new members. As
with Morris dancing in the UK, Australian sides face something of a crisis when
it comes to regeneration. Albion Fair’s youngest member is in her 30s, while in
Cowans’ five years with them, only three new members have joined and stayed.
“The greying of Morris is an issue,” says Beckett, “especially in the
single-sex sides. There are, encouragingly, enough younger members of the mixed
sides – particularly mixed Cotswold/Border sides – to ensure Morris will live
on. I’m less sanguine about the single-sex sides.”
The culture, history and
symbolism aside, the primary appeal of Morris dancing, for many, appears to be
the opportunity to bond with others through this shared challenge (and it is a
challenge, with Beckett describing broken knuckles and plenty of blood during
stick dances), as well as the rush of physical elation that can come from any
form of dancing.
Cowans says, “I enjoy the
attachment to a part of my heritage – I’m British born but not bred, and there
is something wonderfully pagan about the dances. I also enjoy being part of a
group and I like the women I dance with very much. I like that Morris dancing
is accessible, in that anyone of any age, shape or size can do it.
“However, mostly, I like the
feeling of joy which dancing, any dancing, can provide.”
The National Folk Festival takes places at
Exhibition Park, Canberra, over the Easter weekend.
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