{"id":23081,"date":"2024-01-23T21:53:24","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T16:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/the-woman-who-saved-morris-dancing-from-extinction-books-entertainment\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T21:53:24","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T16:23:24","slug":"the-woman-who-saved-morris-dancing-from-extinction-books-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/the-woman-who-saved-morris-dancing-from-extinction-books-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"The woman who saved Morris Dancing from extinction | Books | Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Morris<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition (Image: In Pictures Ltd.\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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A sun-dappled village fair. Children gaily spinning around a maypole. Cricketers on the village green. Few things evoke the splendour and tradition of an English summer so perfectly. And then come the Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition, as much mocked as they are loved.<\/p>\n

Clad in white, with snowy handkerchiefs flying and silver ankle bells jangling, the fleet-footed dancers evoke a tradition that dates back to the 15th century.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not everyone\u2019s cup of tea, admittedly.<\/p>\n

\u201cTry everything once \u2013 except incest and Morris dancing,\u201d goes the old saying.<\/p>\n

Yet Morris dancing is enjoying a surprising revival. More than 800 troupes perform across England with an estimated 13,600 dancers, and the traditional steps are now being mingled with influences from hip-hop to ballet, as a new generation breathes fresh energy into the art.<\/p>\n

For more than 500 years, men across England have danced wielding swords, staves and kerchiefs, following in the high-stepping footsteps of an ancient heritage. <\/p>\n

But a new book reveals that Morris dancing was almost extinct by the dawn of the last century, poised to vanish from England\u2019s green and pleasant land.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Though historically performed exclusively by men, Morris dancing surprisingly owes its survival and revival to the efforts of a group of working-class London girls, inspired by a leading Suffragette, Mary Neal, who has been cruelly forgotten and robbed of recognition \u2013 until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Neal saved Morris dancing from oblivion,\u201d says historian Kathryn Atherton. \u201cIt would be extinct, remembered only in history books and academic journals if she hadn\u2019t stepped in to revive the dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end of the 19th century, there were only a few troupes of very old men still Morris dancing, performing dances that had not been seen outside their villages for centuries \u2013 and it was set to die with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary Neal went out across the country learning these dances and taught them to young girls from the slums of inner-city London, most of them uneducated, some probably prostitutes, as part of her mission to improve their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine Chubby Checker using the Twist to improve society, or breakdancing serving as a political tool for change, but Mary Neal had a vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was fighting for women\u2019s right to vote and saw Morris dancing as a vehicle for social change, an extension of women\u2019s liberation,\u201d explains Atherton, the author of Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing, published next Tuesday. \u201cShe saw Morris dancing as a way to promote social inclusivity, giving poor urban girls confidence and a sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"IDEALISTIC:<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

IDEALISTIC: Mary Neal wanted to make life better for inner-city girls (Image: Photo courtesy of Lucy Neal.)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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But in a patriarchal Edwardian era, Neal was eclipsed by a male rival, folk song historian Cecil Sharp, who squeezed Neal out and erased her from Morris dancing\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary was unfairly ousted from the Morris dance community she helped save, and suffered a great injustice,\u201d says Atherton.<\/p>\n

Mary Neal was born in 1860 to a wealthy button-making Birmingham family with mansions, servants and carriages. A tall, imposing woman driven by a desire for social justice, she moved to the slums of St Pancras, rife with Dickensian poverty and neglect, where she formed the Esp\u00e9rance Girls Club to elevate the lives of impoverished young women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMary found that the girls really enjoyed singing and turned to historian Cecil Sharp, who collected traditional English folk songs, to supply the music. But Sharp didn\u2019t know of any dances to accompany the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Neal travelled the country, finding England\u2019s last few ageing Morris dancers, and learned their steps to teach her girls before their debut performance in 1906.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorris dancing symbolised the rural days of \u2018Merrie Ole England\u2019, so different from the 20th century\u2019s industrial slums and poverty,\u201d says Atherton. \u201cThis Arcadian idyll was a myth, of course, conveniently forgetting that thousands had flocked to the cities as they were dying of starvation on the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal\u2019s girls brought Morris dancing to new audiences, sparking an English folk dance revival that continues to this day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NEW<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

NEW CRAZE: Young women Morris Dancing in early 20th century (Image: London Metropolitan Archives\/Heritage Images\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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    \u201cShe was surprised at how it captured the nation\u2019s imagination,\u201d says Atherton. Morris dancing\u2019s origins are lost in the mists of time, but in Edwardian England, buoyed by the romanticism of the Arts and Crafts movement, many imagined it to symbolise sexuality, fertility rites and possibly even pre-Christian pagan human sacrifice.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe notion was that England\u2019s history and heritage was rural and these inner city girls \u2013 who had never seen a cow or a dewdrop \u2013 were seen as reviving that heritage,\u201d says Atherton.<\/p>\n

    They danced routines with such quaintly archaic names as Step and Fetch Her, Blue-Eyed Stranger and Rakers of Mallow. To social reformer Neal\u2019s delight, her girls\u2019 Morris dancing attracted fans from across all social boundaries.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese uneducated slum girls were invited to stay in country houses and stately homes, performing for the aristocracy, even teaching Morris dancing to the Home Secretary\u2019s wife,\u201d the author notes.<\/p>\n

    Neal\u2019s supporters included the hunger-striking Suffragette daughters of lords and baronesses. But Neal\u2019s passion to use Morris dancing to drive social reform proved her downfall.<\/p>\n

    After working with Neal for a while, folk song historian Sharp turned against her.<\/p>\n

    \u201cSharp wanted the old ways to endure in English culture as well as politics,\u201d explains the author. He formed his own rival Morris dancing troupes and began dictating his own rules for the dance. Sharp claimed to be teaching the \u201cpure\u201d version of Morris dancing, with strictly-formulated steps. He attacked Mary\u2019s girls for valuing enthusiasm over authenticity, and performance over accuracy. In reality, the few surviving old Morris troupes all danced differently, but Sharp positioned himself as the sole arbiter of authenticity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \"CHEERFUL:<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/p>\n

    CHEERFUL: Uniforms feature bright colours, ribbon and many bells (Image: Li Kim Goh)<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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    \u201cThey battled for dominance, but in Edwardian English society with all its sexism and misogyny, it was always going to be a man who would emerge on top when Morris dancing became institutionalised,\u201d says Atherton.<\/p>\n

    \u201cAs Suffragettes became more radical, throwing stones and committing arson, Mary became stigmatised as a radical, even though she was never arrested and never went on hunger strike. Men took control of Morris dancing and she was forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Sharp also insisted that Morris was an essentially male dance \u2013 and banned women.<\/p>\n

    \u201cIt is a sad irony that women, who were responsible for the revival of Morris dancing, were barred from dancing it for decades,\u201d says Atherton. \u201cPeople did not even know that a woman had been responsible for its revival. Mary was ousted from the movement she initiated and had done so much to promote.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Sharp was hailed as the saviour of Morris dancing, while Neal was virtually erased from its history. She died at her West Sussex home in 1944, aged 84.<\/p>\n

    Only in the last few years have women finally been allowed to join Morris troupes again, remaking the dance with all the enthusiasm Neal had once embraced, in contrast with Sharp\u2019s formalism. The all-female Boss Morris company performed at London\u2019s Southbank Centre last year clad in gold lam\u00e9 jumpsuits, painted faces and floral headdresses, while the Royal Opera House hosted workshops on Morris dancing, mingled with hip-hop and Afro-Brazilian capoeira dance.<\/p>\n

    \u201cYounger dancers are much freer in their interpretation of what counts as Morris,\u201d says dance historian Michael Heaney.<\/p>\n

    \u201cMary Neal is long overdue recognition for saving Morris dancing,\u201d says Atherton. \u201cThere are Morris dancers all over England now, and they owe her a debt of gratitude.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    \"Mary<\/source><\/source><\/picture>Mary Neal and the Suffragettes who Saved Morris Dancing [Publicity Picture]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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    Mary Neal and the Suffragettes Who Saved Morris Dancing by Kathryn Atherton (Pen & Sword, \u00a320) is published January 30. Visit expressbookshop.com or call Express Bookshop on 020 3176 3832. Free UK P&P on orders over \u00a325<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n[ad_2]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [ad_1] Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition (Image: In Pictures Ltd.\/Corbis via Getty Images) A sun-dappled village fair. Children gaily spinning around a maypole. Cricketers on the village green. Few things evoke the splendour and tradition of an English summer so perfectly. And then come the Morris dancers, a quintessentially English tradition, as much mocked …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1023],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}