Dancing England moves on

English Dance and Song Autumn 2019

This article was published in English Dance and Song, the magazine of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. The world’s oldest magazine for folk music and dance, EDS was first published in 1936 and is essential reading for anyone with a passion for folk arts. 

It’s 40 years since the first Dancing England took place. Phil Heaton looks back at its origins – and ahead to its future

The 1970s was a time of expansion in the morris world with many younger performers driving the revival. But it was obvious that some performers were ignorant of their chosen dance’s roots and were only capable of putting on rather poor displays.

Following much planning, Dancing England first took place in January 1979. Held at the Derby Assembly Rooms, it was a sell-out. It attracted a wide audience of dancers and public and was well received by both folkies and the general audience.

At the event, Black Cap Sword Dancers set out to not only show the performance traditions of England but were also keen to show excellent dancing and performance from regional traditions. These different forms of dance later became known as the dancing tribes of England.

The event in January 1980 was an even bigger success and by 1981, Dancing England had eclipsed similar fixtures in the country. Dancing England ran to sell-out houses in Derby until in 1987 when it was deemed to have run its course. The organisers were convinced that the tradition had been elevated to its rightful place at the forefront of the morris world. There was now a platform and a showcase for those aspirational dancing tribes.

During the Eighties, however, the ethos subtly changed and developed. In 1981, after the third Dancing England, Derek Schofield, writing in EDS, said that the organisers faced a dilemma for future events: “Do they repeat (traditional) teams that have already appeared or do they look for the best of the revival?”. And so it proved. The revival became almost as important as the tradition.

Casting the net wider brought in many revival and traditional performances of regional dancers able to show the great depth and excellence of English performance. Other changes were rolling on by 1985 when Platt Bridge, excellent women dancers from Wigan, performed their version of Fluffy Morris directly descended from the Wakes Processions and North West Carnivals. The team was rapturously applauded and massive discussion followed.

When Dancing England was reinvigorated in 2017, it was by a much younger team of dancers who could see many similarities between their current dance world and the stimulus for the original 1970s set up. There were still many average to poor street performers with little connection to their own dancing traditions.

In January this year, the first theatre show of Dancing England took place at Nottingham Playhouse. At the heart of the performance was a celebration of English traditional dance with an accent on the regional and dancing tribes.

Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers and Snap the Dragon from Norwich brought in the Lord Mayor of Nottingham to open the show. English traditions and performance were superbly represented by a number of teams. Knaresborough Mummers gave a performance of their take on Star Trek in traditional style. Thrales represented rapper in a traditional style very different to Whip the Cat, current Dancing England Rapper Tournament (DERT) champions who finished the show with a flourish.

Dancing England has reverted to a two-yearly cycle and will take place again in January 2021. The organisers would welcome suggestions for performers in traditional, regional and even unique style.

For more about Dancing England, and to contact organisers with ideas, visit dancingengland.co.uk or their Facebook page