Dear Editor,
I find it fascinating that the morris can be introduced into a region and
hence cu lture to which it is foreign,that it can be danced by a class of
person who never did it before, in circumstances in which it has never
done before, in modern dress to modern instruments, that the minds of men
dead 50 years can be read, yet women must be denied the dances largely
collected from their own sex.
What actually did Mr.Sharp say? "It may be noted here and now by all who
have to do with the instruction of girls in the morris, that the feminine
temperament inevitably robs the dance of something of its sturdiness. It
is nothing to lament; for what is lost in vigour is assuredly more than
made good in gracefulness." ... "Seeing the folk music fall upon such good
ground and flourish so amazingly, even amongst these quick-witted
Londoners, strangers to the countryside, it naturally suggested itself
that here was the opportunity,so long desired , to wake the morris from
its long sleep. Anybody not deaf and blind, or unobservant as a stone,
knows that the genius of dancing is born in the London girl of the people,
as surely as in children of the sun". ... "For ourselves, we believe ab-
solutely in the permanence of this revival, and that these astounding
results in our efforts (to teach morris to girls) hitherto are evidence,not
of a fleeting phase or vogue but of no less than that we have restored
to our own people a rightful inheritance, a means and method of self-
expression in movement, native and sincere, such as is offered by no
other form of dancing known to us." Personally, I would not accept the
words of any Edwardian divine as relevant to tile social issues of today.
Charity begins at home; it takes time to make a morris dancer and most of
us are rightly tolerant of new sides. The women were graceful enough not
to laugh at the parodies served up within far less than 1000 miles of
Bristol. What is it that is making your correspondent so emotive ?
God Bless them
ROY DONMETT
40 Attlee Gardens,
Chuch Crookham,
Nr.Aldershot.
Roy's letter follows previous correspondence in Folk News 'John Barleyeorn' and 'Cuckoo's Nest' on Women's Morris. Our apology for the long delay in printing the letter. Ed.