The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #149393   Message #3477893
Posted By: GUEST,George Frampton
10-Feb-13 - 11:03 AM
Thread Name: Molly Dancing
Subject: RE: Molly Dancing
Roy Dommett commented in the magazine 'Morris Matters' that many/most of the present day Molly teams imitate the 7Champions. To be fair on the Champs, the clamour in the late 1980s was for them to teach 'Champs' Molly, although at workshops, the emphasis was on that taught at a Russell Wortley workshop in 1975.

Old Hunts still perform these, having been taught by Cyril Papworth, as well as many of the children's teams in Whittlesey. Good Easter also perform these with a hint of Champs regimentation, original members having been present at a Champs workshop in the 1980s. Cambridge Morris also dance Molly on Plough Monday in the villages around Cambridge and in the city itself. No face make-up, as Wortley noted that many of the 'traditional' teams didn't. The penchant for blacking up in the revival comes from 7Champs 'imitating' the Shropshire Bedlams using a different genre.

Ouse Washes too initially danced in Wortley-Papworth fashion before they took the plunge in becoming a full-time Molly team in the late 1980s. I now regard them as the 'brand leader' in this as most teams formed since then (Gogmagog, Holkham Clodhoppers, etc.) sgtart with them as a reference point. Champs' regimentation with a looser style.

The 'tweedy' team could have been one of a number of teams, Mepal being one.

Apart from Whittlesey, the only other venue to catch Molly en masse is at Ely on the last Saturday in January, organised by Ouse Washes: the Mark Jones Day of Dance.

Champs, Pigdyke, Ouse Washes and Gogmagog perform at festivals, but the remainder only dance strictly in Winter, some with a pagan philosophy.

If anybody wants to commission and/or underwrite a second edition of my booklet 'More Honoured in the Breach than the Observance' published in the 1990s, I'd consider it, This would include a supplement from Morris Matters published more recently, and my own observations on the revival post 1977.