Morris Dancing, May Morning on the Mountain
Wed, May 1, 2013 At 5:30 am on top of Putney Mountain;
6:45 am at Putney Town Hall.
Updated event page available on Facebook.
Come join the Putney Mountain Morris Women and the Putney Morris Men as we welcome spring with dancing and singing on the mountain. This longstanding Putney tradition dates back to the early 1990s, and was started by Jake McDermott, who danced by himself on the mountain on May Day as a statement to the rest of the dancers, who soon decided to follow suit. The Putney Men are taught by well-known contra dance caller, musician, and singer Fred Breunig who ran Press On, a printshop in Putney, for many years, and was central to the rebirth of activity at Pierce’s Hall, in his work establishing the monthly contra dance with the East Putney Community Club. Though Fred still sings with Nowell Sing We Clear, the Putney Morris is the last form of dance he participates in regularly, having founded the team in 1982. The Putney Mountain Morris Women were founded by local dancer Heather Taylor four years ago. Both teams are made up of occasional dancers with a few experienced members, and they exist only to dance on May Day, in the ancient Morris tradition. Morris Dancing is an English folk style which may take its name from Moroccan (Morisco) dancers who traveled through Europe, performing over a millenium ago–the first records of Morris in England date to the mid-1400s, and Shakespeare frequently mentions the style in his plays–Henry V and Midsummer Night’s Dream for example. It is believed the young Shakespeare only had a few forms of entertainment available in England as a young man, including Morris and morality plays, in which a fool is set up as a representation of one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and is ridiculed by the audience when his schemes go awry. In the springtime, Morris dancers in the Cotswold (southern England) tradition don colorful costumes and wear bells on their shins to wake up the earth, or ward off evil, and clash sticks and wave hankerchiefs in their structured dance, often accompanied by a Hobby Horse or Fool, who humorously displays the petty concerns, desires, and self-serving scheming that beset us all. It is sometimes said the peasants used the stick clashing as a form of covert military exercise in the days when it was illegal for peasants to bear arms. The Putney Men have struggled to maintain a full team, but the May Day tradition regularly brings upwards of seventy spectators to the mountaintop at 5:30 am to enjoy the wonderful experience.
by Stuart Strothman
Squire, Putney Morris Men