MERRIE ENGLAND AGAIN?

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3437, 17 March 1920, Page 5

MERRIE ENGLAND AGAIN?

MORRIS DANCING AND FOLK SONGS REVIVED. England may once more be the Iner~ rie England of the ballads if the -eflofits of the Ellglis~il Folk Dance SO-

ciety meet with success. A vacatiau school was opened at the South—'\Vcstcrn Polytechnic, Chelsea, and the alttcndancc was a record.

The programme of a day’s work is itself full of picturesque su-ggestions, Cemtainning such items ‘as ‘Morris dances, folk songs, singing games, and sword dances. Special demonstrations are gi‘Von by the sfiaif, who may be ‘gvrxned graduates of the art, as they have passed the Socl'éty’s certificate examination.

"I had the inspiration for this kind of thing 20 years ago,” said Mr Ce-nail Sharp, honol'al'y director of the Society to a Daily Express re_')'es:ntative; “I was spending C"n.'iS'cm:ls in the country near Oxford, and are morning a party of yokels cam? round and gave‘"us an exni.oit'en of Morris dancing-—in the snow! I I'-.'!T:\(-}‘:‘tb(‘l ‘Rigs o’ Marlow’ and 'Laud:inum Buarhes’ were two of the .-elections. The dancers apologised afterwards for giving this exhibition at Christmas —May Week being the recognised time —but they said they were out of work and hoped to raise some extra money. “I was struck with t.he quality of the dancing, and resolved to do what I could to revive an old Engfilish art.” The vacation school lasts a week, and terminates with a country dance party at the South-Western Polytechnic.