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Formed in
1985, the aim of Quayside Cloggies has been to retain and perform one of
England's dance traditions and to support local charities by way of
collections when we dance out.
Our Charity for this year is
the Dorset Air Ambulance.
TRADITION
The North
West Morris is probably the most colourful of English dances. The
elaborate costumes, together with the large number of dancers that take
part, provide a show which stands out among crowds and noisy streets.
Costumes are often decorated by rosettes, ribbons, strings of beads and
badges. Clogs are almost always worn, with brass nails and eyelets and
bells attached to the laces.
Cloggies
perform a popular selection of north-west clog morris dances. Most of our
dances are traditional, originating from the counties of Lancashire and
Cheshire, but we have created a number of our own dances in keeping with
the style.
The morris
dances performed in the North West tradition come from the Lancashire and
Cheshire, counties in the North West of the UK where women would dance in
the street wearing clogs. In the mills, workers had to wear wooden
soled shoes (leather soles rotted on the floors which were kept wet to
keep the air humid), so people took their inspiration for the dance from
the clatter of weaving machines and used their working shoes on the newly
paved streets.
The heyday of
the Morris in the North-West seems to have been the first half of the 19th
century. At this time morris dancing regularly accompanied the rush
cart to the Church at the annual wakes holiday in the late summer. For a
long time, the North West Morris has been a processional dance, performed
whilst moving along the streets. It is worth noting that in Lancashire the
procession was, and in some areas still is, a favourite form of
celebration. Even today the Whit Walks and annual carnival parades of
Lancashire‚ towns echo this fondness for processions, and it
is not surprising that the Morris fits in well with these occasions
North West
Morris follows the same general pattern wherever it is found.
However, versions performed by different teams vary considerably and it is
usual to refer to these versions by the name of the place where they were
collected or performed. There are many traditional dances identified by
their places of origin such as Fleetwood, Colne and Lostock.
This form of
the Morris has been particularly associated with the annual wakes
Festivals during the nineteenth century. However there was a growing
opposition to the drunkenness and fighting that often accompanied the rush
cart processions.( So what's new ).
Times have
changed however and the Morris teams were decimated by the Great War and
the changes that it brought with it. Fortunately, during the 1920's,
girls and women's teams became predominant in the north-west and since the
1930's many mixed teams have survived. |
