Folklore: Abram Morris Dance

Subject: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 02:06 PM

Forgot to tell people before - It's this Saturday (24 June 2006). I will be there squeezing the old box while a few mad people throw themselves round in circles 30-odd times over the course of the day. See here for more details if you fancy coming to support us, throw money, throw eggs or whatever.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 03:02 PM

Dave,

this is seriously fascinating:

"Some useful hints are given in "The great diurnall of Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby, Lancashire": 16th June 1715 "Mrs Barker, my Wife and I went to Ailes Mellings, we saw the Morris Dansers of Sefton as were going their Round in order to Rear a May-Pole in Sefton..."; 9th July 1715 "The Little Boyes & Girles of this Town diverted themselves with Rearing a May-pole in the West-Lane, they had Morrys dansing & a great many came to it both old and young ..."; and 24th June 1721 "... coming home I overtook the Morris Dansers as were going to Flower the May-Pole in Magull".

Blundell did not remark on any significant difference between the Morris dancers of Lancashire and those he had seen previously in Gloucestershire in 1703."

From the Abram site.

I separated this last sentence because it strongly suggests, as do other elements of the site, that Abram is the surviving link to Cotswold in the sense that a style of morris akin to Cotswold existed in Lancashire before industrialisation and Urban clog morris.

Do you belive this to be true?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 05:43 PM

I am not sure, Les. The keeper of the site - Michael Jackson (No - not that one!) or the team leader, Geoff Hughes, would be better able to answer. I can ask them on Saturday if you like or you could email the site?


What I do know though is that apart from the Abbots Bromley dance Abram could well be the oldest surviving dance in England:-)

Lets wait for the dissenters...

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 06:13 PM

Oh - it is in soft shoe and with hankies though. As well as being 'circular'. Unlike the usual NW tradition of clogs and sticks or mollies, and being processional. So I guess it does have similarities to Cotswold. The steps and figures are not typicaly Cotswold though so it is a bit of an oddity - Come along and have a look:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: GUEST,Mandoleer
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 06:56 PM

Damn! Same day as ours. Anyway, if anyone wants an electronically produced version (probably not totally authentic, but it's free!) of the Abram tune as a ringtone - let me know.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 20 Jun 06 - 07:06 PM

Ooooh - yes please. Geoff (the leader) had one on his phone tonight. I would love one. Is it in G? Can I use it instead of my concertia?

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: LesB
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 07:47 AM

Les, deep in the diary of "Nicholas Blundell of Little Crosby, Lancashire", you will also find a reference to dancing his sword dance at the celebration of opening his marl pit. This pre dates any references to sword dancing in N Yorkshire. Thus proving what we already knew. That sword dancing is a Lancy tradition not a Yorky one!
We take great delight in pointing this out every time we ( Southport Swords) dance in Yorkshire (he he)!
Cheers
Les (one of the other ones)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Ruston Hornsby
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 09:48 AM

Les in Chorlton - thank you for introducing the concept of "Urban Clog Morris" in your posting. This could signify a new development for the NW clog tradition, "Urban" in music terms these days being used in reference to Rap and associated black music culture. This could very well point to the future. I will suggest to Rivington and Horwich that they re-equip with sportswear, expensive fashion trainers, bling jewellery and replace the band with Gangsta Rappers.

PS - do try to get to see Abram on Saturday, it's pretty unique. It starts at the "Morris Dancers Ground" (it's actually marked as such on maps)by the former Maypole Colliery in Abram.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 10:01 AM

There's me thinking that NW teams pioneered the wearing of bling (beads) and sportswear (breeches) albeit in a 19C way!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave Wynn
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 11:59 AM

All I know is "It 'urts on Sunday". DtG jus' stands there and plays that maddeningly familiar tune all day.....It's all very well for him....Mutter Mumble....

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 01:10 PM

Well, that record wasn't called Deep Lancashire for nothing was it Les?

Ps. I remember Southport Swords when they only had pen knives circa 1969 and although I don't want to drop names Howard Cooper stayed with me and my mum and we worked at the same school.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 04:45 PM

Dave the Gnome

Yes, it's an odd mixture especially as from my recollections of dancing Abram (with Flowers of May)the rhythm changes between figures.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: GUEST,Mandoleer
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:06 PM

Dave the Gnome: Yes, it's in G, set up as midi accordion and octave down contrabass, and if your Leader has it on his phone, it'll be the one I sent to your group's web-site, and should be extractable from him. If not, let me know (via the Argarmeles site). (Haven't had a reply, yet...) Just had a vision of the team all holding up synchronised phones to do the dance to, giving Dave an ale break... But perhaps he doesn't drink....

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 05:37 AM

I have been known to have the odd drop...

I'll get it off Geoff then - Ya.

DtG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 05:37 AM

Ya is the Gnomish for Ta...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 11:06 AM

Well, it's that time of year again:-) The last Saturday of June this year is the 27th and, if I have read my email correctly, it is a special one this year. Well, even more special than usual that is... I've given you the when - As to the where, well, you'll have to find us somewhere around the area but the Morris Dancers Ground around 11am will be a good place to start. Don't expect us at the Dover Lock late on though - We will be at the new community centre instead!

I'll give you an example of th etune -

Da da da da, da da da da da. Da da da da, da da da da...

:D (eG)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Jun 09 - 11:12 AM

Just looked at the website - There is no itinery posted for this year as yet but another good bet is the Queens at around lunchtime. And I did double check - This particular revival started in 1984 so it is indeed a silver anniversary year!

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 11:51 AM

It's this coming weekend. Full itineray now on the web site.

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 09:52 AM

Well, it was yesterday and I must say, it was the best ever for me. Apart from it was the 25th Jubilee it was special for a number of reasons. Firstly, the children of Abram primary school perfomed the dance twice. Once at the Morris dancers ground itself and the second time at the new housing estate that overlooks it. The second time brings me to the second reason. We had the great pleasure of having with us two American musicians, one now resident in the UK - which made the band the biggest I have seen. 2 meloeons, and accordian, a fiddle and me on concertina. The children of the one of our visitors, twin boys, danced with the children on the second dance giving us a truly international feel:-)

The third reason was quite personal. As those who know me will know I have not had any alcohol since last November - purely a holiday I must point out to anyone who thinks I have gone daft:-) I drove round being a 'portable pub' (1 pin of bitter and one of mild for those interested) to replace the pub part way round which was the halfway point and is now closed. I loved both the freedom to to do this and the idea that I was helping in some small way to sustain the tradition in more ways than one:-)

Finaly, we finished the day with an absolutely superb evening at the local community centre. It gave me proof, if any was needed, that tradition IS all about community. There was a wonderful supper, prepared by the unpaid voluteers at the centre, a brilliant display of Lancashire clog dancing by two of our team, much singing and merriment and the performance of our pace egg play - even though it was not Easter! Much more importantly there was a true sense of the tradition and the community living and being together.

There was no insulation of either the community, the dancers or the performers. We were one big team and everyone got as much out of it as they had put in. Long may it continue to be so.

Cheers

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 28 Jun 09 - 12:25 PM

Oh - forgot to say. One of our dancers was Michael Jackson - Honest - look at the web site! Says he is feeling much better.

Talk about coincidence - Musician, performer, dancer and white...

:D(eG)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 09:37 AM

Some pictures here -

http://www.thelwallmorris.org.uk/Abram_09/Abram_09.htm

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Ringer
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:22 PM

Is that Peter Bearon I see in the "Folks mill around eating and drinking" photo?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 02:29 AM

Peter is sat on the fence in one of the piccies, Ringer. Also on the team photos and those present 25 years ago.

DeG

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Rumncoke
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 08:20 AM

I danced this, long ago - one of the few dances I have done that were not done in clogs - though I believe that at least once I danced it in clogs, as that is what I was wearing at the time. They did have rubber strips on the soles so it was not all that obvious.

There is an Abram 'long morris' which is like the Winster Processional.

Anne Croucher

Subject: RE: Folklore: Abram Morris Dance
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 08:42 AM

I would be interested in the processional, Anne, as we do processes on and off at certain venues. I suspect it is a modern add on to the original as, as far as I know, only the circle dance was researched and noted by Maud Karples.

Cheers

DeG