![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I went to the Christmas Revels, with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gblvr, her family, twistedchick and her SU. The conceit this year was Will Kemp's Nine Days Wonder, when he danced from London to Norwich after quitting the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
The performance was over 50 pieces, ranging from period songs, speeches, Morris dances, a hilarious spoof of every death line in Shakespeare, and a mummer's play done by 'rude mechanicals' (which seemed pretty close to a panto, from what I've heard of the form).
The Morris dancers really amazed me, as the range of styles they performed was pretty diverse -- there was a border Morris early (from Much Wenlock, Shropshire, with shaggy masks), a caper from Glouscestershire, a modern routine adapted by the Revels founder John Langstaff, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, and a sword dance (which included 'beheading' St. George from the mummer's play).
Seeing the variety of Morris Dancing on the stage -- especially the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance -- reminds me of how little we know about some customs. What is the horn dance about? I'm not sure I could tell you -- the symbolism is there, but the form is so old that a lot of the meaning has been lost.
The same with the buffen dance (which was damned impressive considering 2/3 of the dancers were wearing long skirts with petticoats as they did those high leaps and were doing blind strikes) and the 'Roman Soldiers' game. The form is still practiced, but the meaning has become vague.
I have my copy of the program, and I'm going to keep an eye out for recording of the songs.
I'm definitely going next year, when the music will be French Canadian...
gblvr, her family, twistedchick and her SU. The conceit this year was Will Kemp's Nine Days Wonder, when he danced from London to Norwich after quitting the Lord Chamberlain's Men.The performance was over 50 pieces, ranging from period songs, speeches, Morris dances, a hilarious spoof of every death line in Shakespeare, and a mummer's play done by 'rude mechanicals' (which seemed pretty close to a panto, from what I've heard of the form).
The Morris dancers really amazed me, as the range of styles they performed was pretty diverse -- there was a border Morris early (from Much Wenlock, Shropshire, with shaggy masks), a caper from Glouscestershire, a modern routine adapted by the Revels founder John Langstaff, the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, and a sword dance (which included 'beheading' St. George from the mummer's play).
Seeing the variety of Morris Dancing on the stage -- especially the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance -- reminds me of how little we know about some customs. What is the horn dance about? I'm not sure I could tell you -- the symbolism is there, but the form is so old that a lot of the meaning has been lost.
The same with the buffen dance (which was damned impressive considering 2/3 of the dancers were wearing long skirts with petticoats as they did those high leaps and were doing blind strikes) and the 'Roman Soldiers' game. The form is still practiced, but the meaning has become vague.
I have my copy of the program, and I'm going to keep an eye out for recording of the songs.
I'm definitely going next year, when the music will be French Canadian...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
(One of the costume designers is a former professor of mine. Outstanding work she did on this).