Last Updated 7th February 2001
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Meeting at Cecil Sharp House 22 March 1958
The sixty-second meeting of the Morris Ring was held at Cecil Sharp House on Saturday 22nd March 1958.
The meeting had its origins in a conference of the past Squires and present Officers of the Ring held the previous October, and its main purposes was to provide instruction in Cotswold Morris in view of the importance of all the clubs working for and maintaining a high dancing standard.
A severe attack of lumbago unfortunately prevented the attendance of the Squire and his place was taken by Kenworthy Schofield. Dance instruction was given by the Squire-Elect (Jim Phillips), Douglas Kennedy and Stan Belfield. 29 clubs were represented, 10 by full sides; in all 133 men attended the meeting.
The dancing was held in the Main Hall and during the first part of the morning Douglas gave instruction in the Fieldtown tradition, taking two or three well known dances as a basis for some helpful advice on dancing technique. Stan Belfield chose an Ilmington dance and as this was an
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unfamiliar tradition to many of those present a good deal of time was necessarily spent on learning the figures of the dance. During the lunch-break the men patronised the Spread Eagle & other well-known Camden Town hostelries. In the afternoon Jim Phillips gave valuable instruction in the Headington dances, and incidentally drew from Douglas Kennedy a handsome apology on behalf of the English Folk Dance Society, for treating Headington as a "elementary" tradition all those years!
After tea the men gathered in Storrow to see Douglas’s film on teaching the Morris & it was agreed that this provided a valuable visual aid to dance instruction. Some shots of Reg Whitlock dancing a jig at Bampton were of particular interest. Following the film Kenworthy Schofield outlined the main ideas which had emerged from the meeting of Squires and asked for comments on the proposal to hold a week-end for one instructor from each club. It was generally felt that such a meeting should take the form
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of a conference for the exchange of ideas on methods of teaching Morris, and various speakers emphasised the following points:-
the primary importance of knowing the music &
getting the feel of the dance;
consciousness of the other dancers in the team (curbing over-exuberance)
the club spirit more important then the individual teacher.
The Feast was at 7p.m. in Trefusis and 68 men sat down to the meal. The usual formal toasts were drunk & Kenworthy then announced that there would be no speeches. He conveyed the Squires apologies & best wishes, also apologies from Fred Hamer. News had been received that Wallie Newall had undergone an emergency operation the previous Monday. It was agreed that letters of good wishes should be sent from the meeting both to the Squire & to Wallie. Kenworthy thanked, on behalf of all the men present, those who had given instruction during the day, and before closing he referred to this being the first Morris Feast to be held since Alec Hunter’s death. The Bagman read from
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the log book the account of the meeting at Thaxted and Winchester. Geoffrey Metcalf expressed the gratitude of the Morris Ring to Douglas & the Society for allowing us the use of Cecil Sharp House, and the meeting ended with a number of first-rate songs contributed by Lionel Bacon, John Glaister, Bill Astley, Douglas Kennedy & Kenneth Loveless.
Kenworthy Schofield
30th May 1959
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