Knowing your Borders

A Border Morris side

Border is a type of Morris dancing in which most sides (teams) usually black up their faces. It is an old tradition which owes nothing to acts like the black and white minstrels which it predates by centuries. It was a traditional method of disguise at a time when dancing for money could be construed as begging, and was thus illegal.

The Shrewsbury Folk Festival has decided to ban any Morris side that continues to black up. This very much reminds me of an incident that I wrote about in June 2009 - see the original post in which I also explain the origins of the custom in more detail.

The festival director said: "We have been approached by one group that has requested we no longer book sides that use full face black make up and another that has asked us not to change our policy and to continue to book these sides. The festival finds itself caught between two sides of this opposing argument. The festival has never wished to cause offence to any person and as such, from 2017, we will no longer book sides that use full face black make up."

The complaint came from an equality group called FRESh (Fairness, Respect, Equality Shropshire).

I accept the fact that the festival was caught between two sides of an argument, but it seems perverse to side with the one that got its facts wrong by perceiving racist undertones that aren't there. In Otley, I have seen a Border side who painted their faces blue, which I always assumed was to avoid precisely this kind of misunderstanding, although it does leave them open to jokes about Smurfs.

Some Border sides may compromise; others definitely won't. The one good thing is that this ban has been covered by both local and national press who have explained the origins of the practice, which should mean that more people now know its origin is not racist. I can't help feeling that information is a better way forward than a ban.

'Equality and Diversity' is the current term for what we used to call 'Equal Opportunities'. Aren't we in danger of forgetting the Diversity bit?

Swords in Liverpool

The Swords in Southport on May Day

Our local longsword and morris side, the Southport Swords, will be in Liverpool tomorrow evening. It's not what you'd normally expect to see in the city centre on a Tuesday evening but, as they say, what's seldom's wonderful. I assume it's a bit of a warm-up for this Saturday when they will have a full-blown Day of Dance in Liverpool with several guest teams. I'll be there on both occasions, as I gather some real ale will be consumed.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, they'll be at the Dispensary in Renshaw Street at 8.00 pm, but I've no idea where they'll move on to after that.

The Politics of Morris

Argarmeles Clog at the Southport beer festival.
An 'acceptable' dance form for women.

A couple of days ago, I deliberately stepped into a controversy that, by rights, I had no real part in. My
place in the folk scene is as a folk club resident singer and guitarist who performs written, as opposed to traditional, material (when I play 50s and 60s music, that is usually outside a folk setting). The debate was about Morris dance. I am not a dancer myself, although I have played among the musicians for at least three separate sides over the years. I have learnt that there is a huge variety of folk dances in this country, but when you are talking specifically about Morris, there is a long-standing dispute as to whether women should dance it. In one corner, there is the Morris Ring which sides can join only if all the dancers are men. In the other corner, the Morris Federation admits sides that accept women. The basis of the dispute is that Morris is meant to be a fertility dance in which the young men attract the interest of the young maidens, and so it is against tradition for women to dance it, although it is often pointed out that women kept the traditions going when men were called away to the two world wars, and there is anecdotal evidence that women were dancing Morris before the First World War anyway.

I wrote on the Whitby Folk Week Facebook page where the discussion was taking place: "I have come across pedants who maintain that you cannot arrive in Birmingham because "arrive" is derived from the Latin "ripa", meaning a shore, or that men cannot be hysterical because they don't have wombs ("hysterical" is derived from the Greek for womb). Things change, including Morris. No one dances Morris nowadays to attract the young maidens, when the fertility aspect might have been relevant; they will dance for a combination of maintaining tradition, putting on a show and having fun. Women are just as capable of dancing for such reasons as men; the function of Morris has fundamentally changed with the times - traditions do, after all, evolve - and quoting the outdated fertility reason for Morris is like saying you can't arrive in Birmingham."

Quite assertive stuff from a non-dancer, although I doubt they'd have known I don't dance. I got 3 "likes" but my points were in the subsequent thread pretty well ignored. What I chose not to say was that the Morris tradition involved it being danced not only by men, but by young men, and with the best will in the world many dancers would nowadays struggle to fit that description. 

Neither my intervention on the Facebook page nor this post is going to resolve this deep schism in the world of Morris. I posted this mainly to show how you can get controversy and, on occasion, some heat where you'd least expect it: in the tranquil world (as most outsiders would view it) of traditional dance. Wherever you go, there's no escape from internal politics.

School bans English traditional dancers

A school in Kent, which had booked Motley Border Morris Men to appear at a day celebrating diversity, cancelled the booking because the dancers black their faces. The school was anxious not to cause offence to anyone. The irony, particularly for a diversity day, is that this blacking up is not an imitation of black people (as in the case of the Black & White Minstrels), but was originally a disguise. It's an English tradition from the borders with Wales and is hundreds of years old.

Often Morris sides (or 'troupes' as the school called them) went dancing to raise a bit of cash to supplement meagre farm wages, or during the winter when there was no work. As it could be interpreted as a form of begging, they concealed their identity. In 1723, because poachers sometimes blacked their faces as a disguise, it was even made a hanging offence to be found with weapons and a blacked face. Blacking up by Morris sides today is a relic of part of our social history, and has absolutely nothing to do with race. As a committed anti-racist, I wouldn't defend it otherwise.

It's a pity that the school didn't bother to find out why the dancers black up, and explain the reasons in terms of social history and rural poverty. Another reason why it's a pity is that whenever I have watched Border Morris, I've noticed that kids usually love it as it's energetic, noisy, involves clashing sticks, and has a large band of varied musicians creating a great wall of sound. It's difficult to ignore Border Morris.

What's it got to do with this blog? How about the fact that Morris sides dance to live traditional music and tend to drink real ale? The picture shows the Men O' Th' Mere Morris outside the Zetland pub in 1981; they were active in Southport throughout the 1980s. I am at the back wearing a cap and clutching a guitar ~ and a pint, of course. As a musician I didn't black up. (click on picture to enlarge it)