Folk traditions throw up some wonderful animals on occasion. There are traditional hobby horses - not the children's toy, but proper hobby horses, like Dobbin below.  they sometimes join in morris dances 






and a jig dancing horse from the Outside Capering Crew


and if you like that one, then you need the sequel...


I'll maybe cover hooden horses another day

Went into Pamphill school to teach the first of a series of  longsword sessions to a class of year 4 children.

Very glad I took my friend Paul with me.  He's a retired teacher and taught his children longsword dancing for many years.

Watching him work with the kids is a real revelation as to what training and experience can do.

He controlled over 30 children without once raising his voice and had them doing exactly what he wanted without noise or fuss.  Simple things, like making it a game to move as quietly as possible when forming their groups, or telling them to sit on the floor cross-legged with their swords across their laps making  sure their swords didn't touch the floor and make a noise.

He spent the first ten minutes just getting them to listen to the music, clap along, count to eight with the music and just developing their sense of rhythm and the patterns of 8 and 16 that the dance requires.

Lots of positive feedback to all the children.

By the end of the lesson, every group had managed the first two figures of the dance and several of the children spontaneously came up afterwards and said 'thank you'.

We're all looking forward to next week.

 I went to Normandy this weekend with the Quayside Cloggies (the ladies North West Morris group I belong to).

I packed pretty light as I didn't want to have to carry much, especially when we were moving between dance spots.

I kept my handbag for essentials like cash and ventolin inhaler, etc.  I had enough space to take either my camera or my English/French dictionary in my handbag.  I chose the dictionary.

This turned out to be a mistake...

The dictionary came in handy, because I stayed with a lovely French couple who didn't speak very much English.

However, what I hadn't know in advance was that the French Group Alfred-Rossel had also invited a dance group from Cherbourg's other twin town in Germany.  Die Volktanzgrup de Weileurstenssbligen  (I think it is near Bremerhaven).

Ottmar from the German group was also staying with Marie and Bernard and his schoolboy English and my schoolgirl German managed to establish that he was a bandertanzer  (there's an unlaut on the a, but I get the wrong character when I try to type it).

A bandertanz is a maypole dance, done with adults, not children.  They'd brought their maypole (maybaum) 1,100km and here was me without a camera!

It was a wooden pole, a bit taller than my maypole, but also coming apart into two sections.  Instead of having a base that they set on the ground, they had adapted their pole (after getting fed up of carrying it in processions) so that the base was in a hand cart that they'd nicknamed the banderwagen.  The only drawback is that in spite of a jack at the back, it sometimes moves around a bit when they dance round it.

They don't have a web site (as far as I can tell), they said they had no footage on You Tube (but have promised to try and film the dance for me.)..  

Research on You Tube this morning has revealed several interesting facts.  There appears to be only bandertanz (aka bandltanz) and it is performed in many different towns.  It's always done to the same tune, called (possibly) the bandltanz waltz.

I can't find a copy of the sheet music - if anyone can help, it would be much appreciated.

Some of the maypoles used are massive and can have 30 or more couples doing the dance at the same time.



The choreography is roughly,

1.,  Couples sway their ribbons in time to the music.

2.  Couples either walk or do a slow polka step for eight steps clockwise, then 8 anti-clockwise.

3.  Several slow turns with partner, using ribbons gracefully as you pass over and under.

4.  Same as three in reverse.

5.  Woman face one way, men face the other.  A long slow plait is made, going on for as long as you choose.

6.  Undo the plait.

7.  Each couple do a complete right hand turn together.

8.  Women go clockwise, men anticlockwise and turn (left handed) a new partner from the next couple.

9.  Repeat this, carrying on in the same direction.  This will build up a tent figure.

10.  Reverse to undo the tent.

11.  Release the ribbons, take your partner in a ballroom hold and polka round the maypole.

I'm currently reading very small book exploring  the connections between matachin (a historical sword dance) and morris.  

One one page is this photo (which I also found on the morris ring web site)  The photo was taken in 1896 by Henry Taunt and is of the Chipping Camden morris dancers.  It's one of the earliest morris photos known.

 

You can see the classic white Cotswold morris costume and the bells, (and the rosettes that many teams also wore), but the thing that actually caught my eye was the doll in the centre. See it?  Down by his feet, hanging  from the box that's hanging over his shoulder.

Now look at his feet.  See that small plank with one foot under it and one foot resting on it?  The doll's feet are resting on the plant and it has thin, jointed, legs.

It's a jig doll, but of a size and style that I've never seen before.

"What is a jig doll?" I hear you ask.  See below (they also appear to be an Appalachian tradition)


No discussion of jig dolls would be complete without a reference to the Ballad of Seth Davy (Whisky on a Sunday)
See this link -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjfk2turxY&feature=related   

Seth Davy was a real person and one of the few black people to be referenced in a folk song.  Here's and old photo of him in Liverpool- http://aliverpoolfolksongaweek.blogspot.com/2011/08/21-seth-davy.html   He used to perform in the street with his jog dolls.

You can buy jig dolls (or make your own).  Here's one site that sells them,  Must  admit that I'm occasionally tempted to get one myself.  (I've seen some very nice ones occasionally made in the colours of specific morris teams.)

See Vera's journal for how they do it in the Czech Republic.  Here  and here.   Admire the 'maidens' working on making the wreath that hangs from the top.

Today, I'm setting up my maypole for a Poole arts event.  I'll see if I can get some photos, though it isn't nearly as good as the Czech one.

This is the first time I'll have used my new sound system, so I'm crossing my fingers for it all to go smoothly.  I'm also hoping to teach adults this time, so maybe I can do some of the more complicated dances.

I've just been watching "Come clog dancing" which is a highly enjoyable programme about traditional English clog dancing  (it was originally a men's dance from mining areas) and also a dash of rapper sword by the Newcastle Kingsmen.  The Kingsmen demonstrate perfectly why rapper is unequalled as a pub dance and do spins at a speed that put our local rapper side to shame (though they have the advantage of being younger).

After watching this, you'll never again confuse North-West  morris (often danced in clogs) with clog dancing (which is a solo dance with totally different steps and history).  Highly recommended, and not just for old folkies like me.

Courtesy of vjezkova, a couple of photos of Czeech traditional performance dances.



The hats remind me a little of those worn by UK North West Morris dancers, though I've no idea what kind of dance is going to be performed here.  It won't be anything like North West, as the dancers aren't carrying short sticks or hankies.  One of them has a walking stick, but I can't tell if he's the only one carrying a stick.

In other ways, the costume reminds me more of what I'd expect from longsword dancers.

Note the guy on one side in full tatter costume on one side.  A little like old photos of English mummers.

There's a wonderful photo here - http://gal.dkhodonin.eu/fasank2010/slides/DSC_0206.html - which I'm unable to copy over.  Look at the wonderful costumes (especially the decoration style of the trousers), and also the unusual (to my eye) shape of the swords they're using.  I can see how the handle has been adapted for dancing.  The style of the dance (on the limited evidence of one photo) looks very like English longsword - which isn't totally surprising as any circular sword dance will naturally evolve pretty similar basic figures.  I wonder if the dancers also perform hankie dances, given that they've all got a pair of decorated hankies tucked into their belts.

All my work getting Anonymous Morris plastered all over the internet has started to pay off. 

We've got two musicians for Anonymous Morris.  Kate and Corwen are interested in old instruments, folk traditions, mumming plays, morris and narrow boats!  Something tells me we're destined to be friends...

I'm really looking forward to meeting them.

They found us via the Dark Dorset website.

See Kate and Corwen's page on mast beasts.  If you're at all interested in any traditions involving horses or any other kind of morris/soulcake/skulls on poles, then you'll find this an interesting read.  I have this sudden urge for a hobby horse...  (not strictly speaking a mast beast, but a close relative that is sometimes found with the morris)



I've also got a battered second-hand snare drum via another morris dancer.  It's battered, but was also cheap.  I've bought some drumsticks for it (and signed one of the staff in the music shop as a possible dancer...) and got an old luggage strap to sling over the shoulder and carry it as a side drum.

I've arranged for some more morris sticks.  (We've got nine at present courtesy of Old Harry morris, which folded last year), but I've now tracked down the guy who cuts sticks for all the local Cotswold and Border sides.  Ideally, the sticks should have a year to dry out and season properly, but green sticks are better than no sticks, and they'll improve with time.  (You get a much better sound when seasoned sticks clash, and they're less likely to splinter)

I've paid the membership for a year for Open Morris (one of three morris organisations in the country, they work together on many issues).  This particularly important for insurance purposes as there's a standard morris insurance policy that covers you at dance outs and practise sessions.

I'm currently working on poster designs.  I'll need to get those all around Poole and local youth clubs, etc in a couple of weeks' time.

It's about as much work as running a convention! 

Vera has kindly reposted her maypole photos for me.

You'll instantly see the close similarity between the Czech Republic maypole and the German one I posted yesterday.

I'd love to see photos of other European maypole traditions.  cdybedahl says there will be Swedish ones in late June, which arouses my curiosity as to why the later date.  (and also as to what they will look like).

The English part of the Maypole entry on Wikipedia looks as though it is taken from Hutton's 'Stations of the Sun' and I'd regard it as accurate historically.

Hutton is a wonderfully detailed historian (no random speculation to suit his own theories, just a detailed record of everything to be found on the subject in old records) and his book is currently £7.14 including postage on Amazon...

grikmeer asked about the Ankh Morpork stick and bucket dance.

The closest I can find is a broom dance.  (Many broom dances have circling choruses which could easily be done going around a bucket.)

They tend to be competitive, with one person trying to copy or outdo another.  Which could be why members of the Ankh Morpork Folk Dance and Song Society regarded them as dangerous.  I can believe someone breaking a leg in a broom dance...