English Folk-Song and Dance

by Frank Kidson; Mary Neal

The following account of that evening is taken from the first book of instructions by Mr Sharp and Mr MacIlwaine—

“The result of their coming far out-ran our fondest anticipations. The Morris, like the magic beanstalk, seemed to outwit the laws of nature: we saw it in the heart of London rise up from its long sleep before our very eyes. In connection with this affair, the mention of that well-beloved fable is appropriate and irresistible. The first dance that was set before these Londoners—upon this occasion which we enthusiasts make bold to call historic—was Bean-setting. It represents the setting of the seed in spring-time. Of course the music, its lilt and the steps that their forefathers had footed to it in the olden time, were as little known to these, the London born, as the tongue and ceremonial of old Peru. As little known, yet not strange at all; it was a summons never heard until now, yet instantly obeyed: because, though unfamiliar and unforeseen, it was of England, and came, even though it was centuries upon the way, to kinsfolk. Let the precisian explain it as he may, that is our way of accounting for an experience both fruitful and astounding. Within half-an-hour of the coming of these Morris men we saw the Bean-setting—its thumping and clashing of staves, its intricate figures and steps hitherto unknown—in full swing upon a London floor. And upon the delighted but somewhat dazed confession of the instructor, we saw it perfect in execution to the least particular. It was even so with the other dances; to see them shown was to see them learned.”

That first evening’s Morris dancing was the beginning of many happy hours of practice culminating in a demonstration of the dances and songs at a Christmas party held in the rooms of the Passmore Edwards’ Settlement in 1905. The revival of the folk-dance, which was at once realised as genuine by many who were there, resulted in a more public performance in 1906, and from that date until the present day a series of Concerts has been given in London and within a radius of thirty miles around, and as far north as Yorkshire and south as Sussex. Besides this, the dancers were almost at once invited to teach the dances, and at the present time have taught in every county, and in villages, towns, schools, clubs, factories, and educational institutions from one end of England to the other. In 1909 the Board of Education sanctioned the dances being used as part of the course of physical exercises and organised play, but until after that sanction the members of the Espérance Club were the only teachers who had learnt their dances direct from the country dancers. The girls soon taught their men friends, and to-day as well as the girls we have several “Sides” of men who both teach and give displays of the dances. Since the visit of the first two Headington men, I have had over twenty dancers up to London, from Headington, Abingdon, Oddington, Yardley Gobion, Northampton, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Yorkshire, and other places, all of whom have contributed something to our direct knowledge of the dances still to be found in the country; and with Mr Clive Carey and others I have visited different centres of dancing with a view to bringing the dancers to London to teach, collecting all I could about old customs surviving around the dances and getting acquainted with the dancers. I have also sent some of our club members to the country with the same end in view. There is, therefore, at the present time a very strong link between the traditional dancers in the country and the young people in London who are busy practising and passing on the dances, and there is no longer any fear now that the dances will die out completely and be lost to the coming generations.

At first all we had to depend on when teaching the dance was the memory of our working girls who had first learnt the dances, and the manuscript of the music which Mr Sharp had taken down from the men who taught us. Thus it became necessary to make the record more permanent and to leave some guide to the dances with those whom we taught. Mr Sharp and Mr MacIlwaine, with the help of Miss Florence Warren, who danced again and again while the actual steps were being recorded, then published a book of tunes and instructions for the dances, and these have been followed by three more sets of the dances. Mr John Graham published two volumes very shortly after, and Mr Clive Carey, Mr Geoffrey Toye, and I followed with two volumes of tunes and instructions. We are all still engaged both in searching for dances, teaching them, and recording them for future use, and though probably the best and most characteristic dances are now duly recorded, still one is never sure where the work is really ended, and we shall always be glad to hear from any readers of fresh dances, which we shall be glad to investigate and, if genuine, record for future use.

In 1907 Mr Cecil Sharp and I disagreed over the constitution of a committee, and from that date have worked on entirely separate lines. I have kept very carefully to the traditional lines, making a great point of having those whom I send out to teach taught by country dancers without the intervention of professional dance instructors, so that to-day, after eight years’ practice, I believe they are dancing as much like the original dancers as is possible.

After the recognition of the traditional dances by the Board of Education, Mr Sharp started a school of teachers at the London South-Western Polytechnic, and the teachers sent out from there have also taught in different parts of the country. As lately as 1911 these young ladies from the Polytechnic have formed the nucleus of the Folk-Dance Society, with Mr Sharp as Director, while the Espérance Club, as the Espérance Guild of Morris Dancers, also continues its work.

In 1910 I organised a vacation School at Littlehampton in Sussex, when sixty teachers from County Council Schools in different parts of the country met to learn the folk-dances, and later that year I transferred the School, with Miss Florence Warren and Mr Clive Carey as instructors in dance and song, at the request of the Governors of the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon to that place, and about two hundred availed themselves of the opportunity of learning the songs and dances.

At this point, owing to Mr Sharp’s criticism of our methods, it was decided to hold a conference to discuss points of difference with a view to making the work at Stratford-on-Avon both national and permanent. In view of this conference, I resigned my position as hon. secretary of the Folk-Dance School at Stratford-on-Avon. But no conference was held, and Mr Sharp was appointed Director of the School.

The School organised by the Espérance Guild was taken back to Littlehampton, and is held there every Easter.

A belated conference was held two years later, with no practical results.