Stepping

A very great deal has been pontificated about border morris stepping, and I've done my share of pontification. Since it was these dances which set the style for Stags, I shall, as the saying almost goes "pontificate this only once.

There are two styles of border stepping for which there is historical evidence. One is the stepping demonstrated to Maud Karpeles by the Upton dancers, a high-knee double-step with the emphasis on the lift. The original description has the free knee swinging across on the fourth beat, which Roy Dommett suggests may be because the dancer was bow-legged. The other is a similar, flatter version, similar to a step used in country dances in the area about the turn of the century. This has the three "steps" made close to the ground, with the emphasis on the hop, which is a low hop, but with the free knee raised so that the thigh is pretty close to horizontal.

There are also references to single-stepping in the dances, but as far as I'm aware, no actual descriptions (if you know of any, please mail me). The Ironmen high-knee single-step, and the Bedlams one-hop two-hop one-two-three-hop are both widely imitated, but both Gordon and JK have admitted on occasion that they weren't based on any real descriptions. These steps are suitable for the big sets which Bedlams and Ironmen use, but most of Stags dances are based on smaller four- and six-person dances which were more laid-back in style. It's important to consider this type of thing because changing the stepping affects every aspect of the dance, including the size of set. See the notes on my Malvern workshop for some more thoughts about this.

One single-step description is of a side from the Dilwyn area, who wore short smocks with bells attached to the smock rather than to bell-pads. They used some form of low-ish single-step, and I lit upon this as a useful precedent. I'm aiming for a step which looks as if it is a flat-footed stamp and shuffle, rather than a step-hop. The emphasis is on the down-beat, which means that in the costume described, they'd have made a fair bit of noise.

But note that I said looks. If you actually dance that way, landing on the heels, then it's a recipe for wrecking the knees. If you want to do this style of step, land on the ball of the foot, and take as much of the energy in the calf muscle as possible, bringing the heel down as you flex the muscle, and then doing a flat-footed shuffle. I once said in an impulsive moment at a workshop that the style to aim for was "what you could do in heavy boots after ten hours working in the fields and five pints of ale to dull the pain". I see no real reason to reconsider that statement, it's exactly the style I'm looking for.

Ah yes, nearly forgot - the arms. Actually we don't move the arms much in stick dances, when not in use the stick is on the shoulder and the free arm is by the side. However, for handkerchief dances, the arms move at half the speed of the feet, changing as the right foot goes down. The right and left arms alternately are punched into the air, at the same time as the "stamp" downbeat of the right foot, then gradually brought down over the next three beats to abdomen-level.

The Choruses

The three dances have a common set of figures, which are described below. They are all in the same set formation, a square for four, the dancers start facing in and are numbered clockwise round the set, with squire as number 1.

If you know about Border Morris, you'll also know that making a set of dances like this is taking liberties with the way the original teams used the material. (See my description of the History of Border Morris for more details.) However, the dances have served their purpose and I make no apologies for them.

The Stick Dance

This dance has had a number of different arrangements of choruses in its somewhat chequered history.

The original one involved "visiting" round the set, with number one taking one step towards number two facing out and clashing tips once, then moving to number three and clashing again. As one moves on to four, two "visits" three and so on, until the last clash, four clashing with three.

Later, after the square hey was dropped from the figures, the stick chorus was changed to be a square hey with clashes

at each of the crossings.

The Hankie Dance

This is the original of the three dances and was probably the favourite one amongst the side The bowing figure upon which this chorus is based is described in the original material. Our interpretation is that each dancer in turn "honours the presence", bowing to the centre of the set with a flourish of the handkerchief. Each bow occupies the time which would be taken by two single-steps. Then, each dancer turns out individually, over the right shoulder, into small individual rounds, taking eight single-steps to get back to place.

The Handclapping Dance

This chorus was put together in a minibus on the way back from Shrewsbury following a very enjoyable session with Bull and Pump morris in the back room of, as I recall, the Bell. The results were fairly predictable, but the chorus works quite well.

Turn out into small rounds for four steps, then do a clapping sequence. Individually, clap hands together, clap right hand on right knee, together, together, left, together, together, together under right knee, together, together under left knee, then across the set, hands pressed against opposite's hands, and pause, leaning, one and three high, two and four low. Then another small round to finish (four steps).

At the time, Stags had two recorder players (now we have three, the Red Stags Wall of Sound) and we used to compete to hold the "pause" note for as long as possible while the dancers had to stand there. We used to manage long enough for the fool to do a "kit inspection" of all the dancers.

The Figures

When they were last danced by Red Stags, the order of the figures in these dances was as follows:

Large Rounds
Stars
Cross Over
Out and Swing
Bombast

Other figures which were previously used were:

Face Up and Sidestep
Square Hey

Large Rounds

Each dancer turns out, over the rght shoulder, to face clockwise, pointing the stick in towards the centre and dancing a large round back to place, then turning the easy way to face into the centre again.

Stars

Dancers move into the centre, swapping the sticks to the left hand, then do a right hand star for eight steps, followed by a left hand star back to place for eight steps, turning the easy way into place.

Cross Over

Face "across" the set, number one facing number four, number two facing number three. Pass right shoulders across to beyond the opposite place, for four steps. Then face to the right and dance a small ring counter-clockwise for four steps. Face back across and dance four steps to beyond the original place, then again a small counter-clockwise ring, ending in position. I usually call this a dog-bone shape, but nobody else much thinks that's what it looks like.

Out and Swing

Face "across" the set as for the Cross Over. Pass right shoulders across to quite a way beyond the opposite place, for four steps. Then use two steps to turn to face partener, and two steps to surge towards the partner, swapping the stick into the left hand. With the right arm round the partner's waist, use seven steps to swing round clockwise, breaking on the eighth step and finishing in place. It helps the symmetry of the dance if everyone finishes in their correct places and facing in.

Bombast

This tends to be the hardest figure to teach. A lot of people seem to think it's one I made up, but this isn't the case. This figure was constructed by Headcorn Morris, who also came up with the name. I did devise the "linear bombast" variation, which I used in the dance Red Stags call "Titterstone Clee". So honours for sadism to dancers and fores alike are shared between us.

Basically, what happens is that each person takes four steps to move counter-clockwise one position, number one to number four position, four to three and so on. In number two and four positions, you simply cast out and dance into the next position round. Number one and two positions turn in, then pass right shoulders and dance out to the next position. So, every repeat, two people are moving down the side whilst two people are dancing round each other in the middle of the set. Note that what you do changes with position, so each dancer alternates going along the sides with passing right shoulders with the opposites.

Face Up and Sidestep

This figure was one of the ones from the original dance. Everone faces up to the music, and then number one and two positions dance to their left, two passing in front of number three and one in front of four, for four closed sidesteps, then four single-steps in partner's place. Repeat back to place, four and three passing in front.

Square Hey

This figure was dropped in favour of the bombast a number of years ago. One and four face down, two and three face up, pass right shoulders with opposite, turn out, then pass left across the set, right up and down, and left across to finish.

Work in Progress

I dropped the Weobley Marsh dances from Stags repertoire in 1996, despite the fact that they were firm favourites. There were two reasons for this: one was that there were several versions floating around and various ex-members knew different sets of figures.

But the real reason was that for the 1998 season, I want to introduce a new version, much closer to the original descriptions which I have found. The chorus will be the bowing figure out of the handkerchief dance, but with two small sticks in the right hand rather than handkerchiefs. The figures will be Rounds, Cross-Over, Face Up and Sidestep as in "Claret and Oysters", Stars and Bombast.

So don't forget, you saw it here first.