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Comments on John Forrest's “Here We Come A-Fossiling”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Anthony G. Barrand ,
Roy Leonard Dommett  and
Ivor Allsop
Anthony G. Barrand
Affiliation:
Boston University
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Extract

John Forrest's essay, “Here We Come A-Fossiling,” is a refreshing and rare effort by a folklorist to articulate an aesthetic distinction between dancing in the folk tradition and dancing in the folk revival. Since neither “tradition” nor “revival” are clearly defined within the discussion, however, Dr. Forrest's argument may seem a little obscure to any but a folklorist or a folk dance enthusiast. At least to this “revivalist,” it also seems a little harsh to claim that there is a wide chasm rather than at most a delicate line between two types of people who both dance the Morris for the love of it.

There is considerable tension between those who engage in formal study of folklife and those who love to sing or dance the materials collected by the field worker. Perhaps one of the most divisive and unwelcome trends emerging out of the development of folklore as an academic discipline has been the quasi-deification of certain performers as “traditional” and a vigorous denigration of “revivalists” or “interpreters.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , Spring/Summer 1985 , pp. 34 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1985

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References

NOTES

1. Forrest, John, “Here We Come A-Fossiling,” Dance Research JournalGoogle Scholar, this issue.

2. This has in recent years increasingly taken on a somewhat aggressive tone. I have begun compiling and authenticating stories about folklorists who have actively and sometimes physically prevented performers they have labelled “traditional” from appearing on stage at folk festivals with performers labelled “interpreters.”

3. For a discussion of this see Barrand, Anthony G., “With Jockey To the Fair,” Come For To Sing, 5 (2), Spring 1979, pp. 12–13Google Scholar, and Barrand, Anthony G., “The Tradition of Revival and the Revival of Tradition,” Come For To Sing, 11 (1), Winter 1985, pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

4. It seems as if Forrest is willing to call the following Cotswold village teams traditional: one from Abingdon, two from Bampton, Chipping Camden and Eynsham. I note with some surprise that he seems not to include Headington Quarry in his list, see p. 30, “but Sharp collected from Kimber after the side that he played for, which was a revival side, had been disbanded.” For a different view, see Dommett, Roy, “The Cotswold Morris in the 20th Century,” Traditional Dance, Vol. I, Proceedings of the Traditional Dance Conference Held at Crewe & Alsager College of Higher Education, 1981, pp. 59–92Google Scholar.

5. Forrest, John, Morris and Matachin (London: English Folk Dance and Song Society, 1984)Google Scholar.

6. It is not clear that one can even count the wearing of bells as a common denominator, since some of the references do not include this aspect of the costume. However, Roy Dommett, in a review of Forrest's Morris and Matachin, writes: “The thread from the early Morris seems to be bells, ribbons and handkerchiefs.” (English Dance and Song, Vol. 46, No. 2, Summer 1984, p. 35)Google Scholar

7. See Wortley, Russell, “The XYZ of Morris,” in Russell Worthy, edited by the Cambridge Morris Men and published in a limited edition, 1980, pp. 3–6Google Scholar.

8. I give my criticisms of Wortley's account of the morris in “ABCD Morris? L,MNO Morris! A Critique of Russell Wortley's ‘XYZ of Morris,’” English Dance and Song, Vol. 42, No. 3(1980): 11–13Google Scholar.

9. See Wortley, Russell, “The Cotswold Morris—Hey-Day, Decline and Revival,” in Wortley, , pp. 7–18Google Scholar.

10. Ibid.

11. Dommett, Roy, “How Did You Think It Was? The Political Background to the Folk Revival, 1903–1912,” Country Dance and Song, 11/12 (1981), pp. 47–52Google Scholar.

12. Personal communication, 1979.

13. Sharp, Cecil J. and Macllwaine, H.C. (Parts I-III) and Butterworth, George (Part V), The Morris Book, first edition, 5 vols. (London: Novello (1907, 1909, 1910, 1911 and 1913)Google Scholar; Sharp, Cecil J. and MacIlwaine, H.C., The Morris Book, second edition, 3 vols (London: Novello (1912, 1919, 1924)Google Scholar.

14. This term is adapted from Carini, Patricia, The Art of Seeing and the Visibility of the Person (Grand Forks, ND: North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation, 1979)Google Scholar.

15. Playford, John, The English Dancing Master, or Plaine and Easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances (London: Playford, John, 1651)Google Scholar. This was subsequently published in 17 editions.

16. See Barrand, , Roy Dommett's Morris Notes, Vol. II, North-West Morris, Country Dance and Song Society, 1984Google Scholar.

17. I talked extensively with and filmed “Mr. Hemming's Morris Dancers” in July and August of 1979.

18. I visited both teams on practice evenings in June and July, 1979.

19. Bacon, Lionel, A Handbook of Morris Dancing, published by The Morris Ring, 1974Google Scholar.

20. Personal communication, August 1982.

21. This is a paraphrase of a common perception among morris dancers of the Bampton style which is discussed in greatest detail by Dommett, Roy in Barrand, , Roy Dommett's Morris Notes, Vol. I, Cotswold or Wychwood Morris, Country Dance and Song Society, 1984Google Scholar, section on the “Bampton Morris.”

22. This idea follows the thinking of the perception psychologist, James J. Gibson. For its clearest articulation, see The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1966)Google Scholar.

23. Chandler, Keith, “‘Taking an Annual Circuit,’ Peripatetic Rural Morris Dancers in London and the Home Counties 1780–1870,” Morris Dancing in the South Midlands Vol. IV, Chandler Publications, 1984Google Scholar.

24. My own team, Marlboro Morris and Sword, will this year hold its 11th day of dancing on the first Saturday of May in Marlboro, Vermont. Most English and North American teams hold a specific day of dancing in the community which serves as the home base for the team. In that location, it is not seen as folk dancing but as another part of the yearly round.

25. Personal communication, on my visit with the Loftus dancers, December 1982.

26. For more information on the redoubtable Charles Taylor, see “The Longborough Morris,” in Barrand, Roy Dommett's Morris Notes, Vol. I.

27. Buffoon dance, see Bacon, p. 17.

28. Old Marlborough, see Bacon, pp. 162-165.

29. Queen's Delight, see Bacon, pp. 118-119.

30. Jug by the Ear, see Bacon, p. 158.

31. For details on the Bacup dancers, see Barrand, , Roy Dommett's Morris Notes, Vol. III, Garland Dances, Country Dance and Song Society, 1984Google Scholar.

32. Forrest, Morris and Matachin.

33. Barrand, A.G., “Aesthetics and the Morris: Mutual Interactions of the Dance, the Dancers and the Community,” Traditional Dance, Vol. IVGoogle Scholar, Proceedings of the Traditional Dance Conference Held at Crewe & Alsager College of Higher Education, 1984 (in press).

34. Woodley's team toured in Vermont in August 1982.