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Vote for Morris Dancing as an English Icon!
I get really cross about the fact that lots of English people will pay good money to watch a touristy folk dance show when on holiday in Spain, or wherever. They come back from holiday to exotic climes talking about all the lovely local tradition they saw. They go on holiday to Ireland and say how wonderful it is that there's this vibrant folk culture on the pubs. I don't mind at all that they do these things. What I do mind is that they do these things, yet still laugh at and deride our own native tradition.
No country in the world takes worse care of their folk tradition that we do. The stupid, idiotic Licencing Act is doing its utmost to wipe out Mummers' Plays and carol singing and folk singing in pubs - and live music of any kind. (And, yes, "they" say that it won't be used this way, but it already has been.) Morris dancing is a "sad" and a joke. Folk singers are bearded chaps with their fingers in their ears, droning tuneless nonsense.
And then there are all those many many films and TV programmes that want a vaguely folky bit of background music to a traditional English scene, and use Irish music... I've argued with several customers in the library who have declared that "England doesn't have any folk songs"...
I can't remember exactly what Jeremy Paxman said in his book about the English, but it was something like, "England doesn't have any tradition of folk dance. Well, except for Morris dancing, which is sad and pathetic so I won't count it."
When we danced at a folk dance festival in Germany, we were the star of the show. All the other European countries were dancing fairly similar dances - mostly mixed couples doing circle dances. We thumped each other with sticks! We had bells on our feet! They came in their dozens to give us schnappes and tell us how wonderful we were. They valued us.
Why can't the English?
I get really cross about the fact that lots of English people will pay good money to watch a touristy folk dance show when on holiday in Spain, or wherever. They come back from holiday to exotic climes talking about all the lovely local tradition they saw. They go on holiday to Ireland and say how wonderful it is that there's this vibrant folk culture on the pubs. I don't mind at all that they do these things. What I do mind is that they do these things, yet still laugh at and deride our own native tradition.
No country in the world takes worse care of their folk tradition that we do. The stupid, idiotic Licencing Act is doing its utmost to wipe out Mummers' Plays and carol singing and folk singing in pubs - and live music of any kind. (And, yes, "they" say that it won't be used this way, but it already has been.) Morris dancing is a "sad" and a joke. Folk singers are bearded chaps with their fingers in their ears, droning tuneless nonsense.
And then there are all those many many films and TV programmes that want a vaguely folky bit of background music to a traditional English scene, and use Irish music... I've argued with several customers in the library who have declared that "England doesn't have any folk songs"...
I can't remember exactly what Jeremy Paxman said in his book about the English, but it was something like, "England doesn't have any tradition of folk dance. Well, except for Morris dancing, which is sad and pathetic so I won't count it."
When we danced at a folk dance festival in Germany, we were the star of the show. All the other European countries were dancing fairly similar dances - mostly mixed couples doing circle dances. We thumped each other with sticks! We had bells on our feet! They came in their dozens to give us schnappes and tell us how wonderful we were. They valued us.
Why can't the English?
