| Share page | Visit Us On FB |
|
|
||
|
Now, having adapted the polka step to the Morris 4/3, let the learner simply count six to the bar and step to it in exactly the same way. He will find, given just an average ear for rhythm, that he will soon be dancing thus, counting as he
1 2 3 4 5 6 dances--1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6--Right--left, Right--right;
1 2 3 4 5 6 Left--right, Left--left.
Having mastered these, one last instruction may be given. The 4/3 Morris step is occasionally varied, so as to make it exactly like the polka-step—that is, with the final hop danced like a dotted note; like a quaver, if the music be in common time. This is a variation practised occasionally by the Morris men themselves, and the enthusiastic amateur will find himself dropping into it occasionally, following his enthusiastic leader. No instructions for this changing of the step will be given in the Notation, for it cannot be specified. The whole side will fall into it naturally, upon occasion: for instance, where there is a long stretch of the step, danced in one position, couples facing, arms swinging and handkerchiefs waving, as in "Blue-eyed Stranger." This is fairly intoxicating to the dancer, and here the hop will often suggest itself. And again, in hurrying, if one gets left behind a pace, as, for instance, in the Chain. But to hop, or not to hop, unevenly in the 4/3 step, that is a matter that will be easily arranged by the spirit of the dancers and the discretion of their leader. We desire merely to indicate a rule that, upon occasion, may be agreeably infringed.
POSITIONS, AND CHANGE OF POSITION.
The Morris side, when in position for dancing, stands in, or returns to, the positions as shown hereunder. The only exception to these is the Ring, as explained below.
POSITION 1 (COLUMN). POSITION 2 (Front).
^ ^
1 2 1> <6
Thus the six stand in two parallel lines of three each. The top, as the rule is in dancing, is set towards the music. The angles represent the dancers: the apex of each angle points as the dancer's face is turned; the numbers within the angles will be used throughout in describing movements of individual dancers.
The dancer at the top left-hand corner, No. 1, is invariably the leader of the side. No figure is completed, and no dance can end, until No. 1 has returned to his place at the top left-hand corner.
It is the duty and privilege of No. 1 to call loudly and clearly the name of each figure or part of a figure as each falls due for performance—"Corners," "Chain," "Back-to-back," and so forth, and to announce the end of the dance by the call of "All in."
In Position 1, or Column, the dancers stand in two files, and all face the same way.
This is called in the Notation—Column, or Col.
In Position 2, or Front, the dancers are turned inward, and face each other in pairs.
This is called in the Notation—Front, or Fr. |
||
|
|
||