The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #154384   Message #3621858
Posted By: GUEST,Derek Schofield
24-Apr-14 - 05:43 AM
Thread Name: Ian Hislop's Olden Days BBC2
Subject: RE: Ian Hislop's Olden Days BBC2
Joe Nicholson:
the films of Sharp dancing have been fairly well publicised on the folk scene over the last 30 years. They were available on video from EFDSS, and included on the BFI film of folk music and customs a couple of years ago. Just google search for Kinora reels (Kinora was a form of flick book - the format of these films).
But the films do not include Sharp dancing morris with women. George Butterworth and (separately) the Karpeles sisters (Maud and Helen) are dancing morris jigs. Sharp, Butterworth and the sisters together danced a country dance.
Prior to the FWW, women and men danced morris - separately - both within the Sharp revival (English Folk dance Society etc) and within the Mary Neal Esperance movement. Both sexes danced in public - indoor displays and occasional outdoor displays, but not outside the pub/village green/town centre.
Gradually after FWW, the men started dancing in these other performance contexts, leading to the foundation of the Morris Ring in 1934.
Derek Schofield