Introduction
Getting Under Way
Developing the Repertoire
Sidmouth, 1983
What Next?
Some Conclusions
Notes
Bibliography
Summary of the Seven Champions' Repertoire
Researched and rehearsed to pedigree perfection they may be, but this group of black-faced men in mole-catcher trousers and hob-nail boots came across as daft and embarrassing as the antics of a student rugby team, full of bone-headed exhibitionist aggression. Perhaps the originals were like that too, but I'll wager they had more grace and powerful beauty about them (2).
The Seven Champions Molly Dancers were conceived, rather than were formed, in August 1977 as one of the amoeboid traumas that the Headcorn Morris dancers were prone to. The premise of forming a team to perform just the Molly dances of Cambridgeshire had already been discussed within a "sub-committee" called "Waterman Quarter" earlier that summer, perhaps due to the recently-released documentary album by Ashley Hutchings, "Rattlebone and Ploughjack" (Island Records, HELP 24). This came to nothing, and it took an increased dissatisfaction with dancing standards and a visit to the International Folklore Festival at Sidmouth to convert words to action.
The 1977 Sidmouth festival brought John Kirkpatrick's innovative Shropshire Bedlams Welsh Border Morris team to the public's attention. Many an enviable eye was cast by many a dancer, and left a lasting impression on some of us with comparatively limited experience. One member of the nascent team can be recorded as saying "after seeing them, (the Bedlams), he knew that there was no way he could stay with Headcorn." Brash words for a nineteen year old who had only been dancing a year! (3)
The new team - as yet without a name - were led by two experienced dancers in Chris White and Dave Dye. Ian "Pike" Teece and John Gasson also left Headcorn to form the new team, and new recruits were found among work colleagues and ex-school friends Chris Rose and Paul Hurst. Three more recruits joined to form the new team whose objective lay merely in being superlative. No decision had yet been made about what to dance, and Cotswold Morris dances were actually tried in the first few months. After the initial flush of interest, three members left the side, and with one away at university, practices were cancelled. Dancing was abandoned that autumn and a Christmas mummers' play used as a vehicle to "get them doing something" in front of an audience.
The play script used was based on that of Shoreham near Sevenoaks in Kent, and like others in the West Kent area was actually called "the Seven Champions of Christendom". The one significant thing to come out of the play with regard to the Molly dance repertoire was the use of a three-handed reel.
The reel itself was fairly basic and is no longer performed, but what it did achieve was to help put some style into the dance, containing as it did the vigorous high-knee single step stomp which characterises our dances today.
After the mumming season, the team once more explored the option of Molly dancing as repertoire from research conducted at Cecil Sharp House by Chris White and Dave Dye. What they found there was not much. At that time, there were passages in Cambridgeshire Customs and Folklore by Enid Porter, giving some background information; an issue of English Dance and Song published in Spring 1974, including a feature on the Little Downham Molly dancers in 1932, details about the Balsham plough gang revival the previous year, and notation for a broom dance; and the definitive article on the subject by Joseph Needham and Arthur Peck which appeared in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in 1933.
Acting upon the incentive of organising a workshop on mumming and performing the play at a St. George's festival at Cecil Sharp House in April 1978, the new team now called "the Seven Champions" practised one dance from the notation given by Needham and Peck. The plan was to do the play at an afternoon ceilidh, then strip off mummers' jackets and reappear as "Molly" dancers to perform the dance "Double Change Sides". For the performance, the kit was as rustic as the dance, and although blacking of faces was used, few wore working boots, and there definitely were no hobnails. One member even stuck drawing pins in his shoes, which "all fell out during dress rehearsa1!"
Although the festival was badly-attended, the Champions were encouraged to continue. For the first season of dancing in Summer 1978, a second dance, "Birds-a-Building", was added which often forms the first dance performed at stands even today.
There were problems in interpreting the given notation. Instructions were very sketchy. To quote that given for "Birds" thus:
nos. 1& 2 cross over giving rt. hands
nos. 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 do the same and so on back to places
nos. 1 & 2 lead down and up, first two couples swing and change.Repeated by nos. 1 & 2 from the second place till all regain their places. (4).
This taken literally does not arrive at the country dance "right and left through" figure that the team interpreted it as - and for that matter all the teams that Cyril Papworth has taught in Cambridgeshire.
There was notation for two other dances beyond that mentioned. There was no indication as to style or performance. It was very discouraging:
It will be evident . . that the dances of Plough Monday in Cambridgeshire were almost identical with country dances, although done by a team of men, with all the accompaniments of the Morris dance of the western counties. And with the exception of the cast in 'College Hornpipe' which can be effective, they offer nothing of interest to the folk-dancer from the technical point of view (5).
Unknown to the Seven Champions, the Cambridge Morris Men and the Mepal Molly Men had already been out on Plough Monday in 1977 and 1978, although this was yet to become general knowledge among the folk fraternity. The premise of Russell Wortley as guru was similarly unrecognised. Glorious in ignorance, and mindful of what spirit the Shropshire Bedlams had infused Border Morris with, the interpretation of style had to include evident use of energy as a prerequisite.
To devolve "Molly" dance from "country" dance, arbitrary decisions were made. The use of the "stomp" had already found precedence in the mummers' reel. A double-step was to be used in the "swing and change" figure, which would be performed in a clockwise direction around couples as distinct from counter-clockwise as in the barn dance. The "lead down" figure would also be redesigned so that couples would act singly and symmetrically in a manner not akin to any "social" dance. The "swing and change" was also to be regimented with a shoulder high grip, hand-to-forearm, rather than the Little Downham "embrace", co-ordinating position with musical bar structure.
To complete the repertoire in the first season, two more dances were included as well as the "Comberton broom dance" learnt by Dave Dye from the notation given in the Spring 1974 English Dance and Song. Both these dances were based on the Steeple Claydon Morris dance given in Lionel Bacon's Handbook of Morris Dancing (1974), one with sticks, the other with hand-clapping. The dance was chosen "because it was a good dance to do" rather than with any aim to turn a non-Cotswold-ish dance into something more suitable, or even because Buckinghamshire is a vaguely contiguous county to the Molly dance hinterland - notwithstanding some miles of Bedfordshire isthmus.
The compactness of the side, coupled with its youth and enthusiasm, with an average age barely twenty years, had its advantages. There was commitment, and dedication to the task without any perceived crusading zeal. There was no "black book" of Molly dances to refer back to. Evolution threatened.
From a retrospective standpoint, it still seems incredible, but it was actually at a fete at Sevenoaks that one dancer in the Steeple Claydon stick dance unaccountably stopped reeling and lapsed into a whole rounds figure, a novelty for the few members in the set who had not actually met that concept within the practice of the Headcorn Morris dancers! Quick thinking saved the day; the rest of the team followed into rounds, and the idea stuck for future performances.
A second mutation occurred when the usual musician, Chris White, was unavailable for a stand. John Gasson was back from university and had decided that he now knew the intricacies of the melodeon well enough as to be able to dance and play it at one and the same time. The relief musician enlisted insisted on playing too fast for some of the dancing, and it transpired that John took matters into his own hands during the revised Steeple Claydon reel. The dance the "1.49 Reel" was born, in honour of its duration, replacing the parent that begat it.
During 1978 and 1979, the Seven Champions worked to complete their repertoire with dances listed by Needham and Peck. It was at the "Silver Jubilee" Sidmouth festival in August 1979 when I first saw the team perform. 1 was interested enough to drive eighty five miles of pre-M25 trunk roads into the Weald of Kent at a public house some seven miles east of Tunbridge Wells to see them again a month later. At that stand outside "the Hop Bine" at Petteridge, shared with their short-lived sister-side the Spelmonden dancers, I saw the four classic Molly dances: "Birds-a-Building", "Smash the Window", "Double Change Sides" and "College Hornpipe", plus the "1.49 Reel" and a "Six Hand Reel" which resembled the "1. 49" but with six in line. Dave Dye had also performed his broom dance at Sidmouth, to complete a seven-dance repertoire.
In summer 1978, the "Morris Workshop" pages of English Dance and Song contained the best published article on Molly dance to date, giving the Champions more fodder upon which to feed. There was detail about kit from at least the team from Madingley, which the Champions had adopted by the time I had first seen them. There were also two more dances from Comberton to try out.
The "Special Molly" dance was originally a handkerchief dance in the Cotswold "Maid of the Mill" genre. The notation given ran thus:
Al Partners forward and back ('dodging' right and left and crossover)
A2 Repeat, crossing back to place
B 1st couple down middle under arches, followed by second, third and fourth couples, and 'edging' up to original places
C 1st couple swing to bottom of set (conjectural)
But what does it mean? What is this "dodging" and "edging"? One thing the Champions knew they did not want was a dance with handkerchiefs! Nonetheless, there were possibilities.
The "something better" took months and longer to envisage, let alone perfect. A "setting" step could be tried with moving backwards and forwards in a vague or real triangle. Somebody from the Royal Borough Morris Men once scorned the Seven Champions, saying that the single step would ever be our pinnacle of perfection. "Dodging" was hitherto to be replaced by successive stages of single, then double, then triple step dance sequences.
The "arches" figure was replaced by our "falling masonry" figure, where the top couple link in "swing and change" hold and side step to the bottom, leading the second then the bottom couple, thereby inverting the set. The set is then re-inverted, and the "swing down" figure enacted.
The present feeling in the side is that the "swing down" figure ought to be replaced by something with a little more imagination. Despite efforts, it has remained intact, and the premise that "it is better to have one naff figure per dance purely to show off just how good the other ones are" does not necessarily meet with universal approval.
The only dance in the repertoire that was instigated from outside its membership was that of "Molly's Complaint" or "Five Hand Reel", which was suggested to Dave Dye by Roy Dommett as a possible dance. The idea was reinforced at a Windsor Morris workshop on the theme "things to do with five hand reels" Although the dance under discussion was based on notation for a Dorset dance, the Champions went away and devised their own five-hand reel.
The central tenet of the dance was the role of the Molly - the man-woman character featured in Plough Monday tradition, not just in Cambridgeshire. The double step was to be used throughout. The actual reel was a three-hand reel by the central Molly with the first diagonal, then with the other, whilst each of the other comers simultaneously step into the centre to pass left shoulders and cross corners. More latterly, the Molly has preferred the use of a "gypsy" figure with each corner in turn, purely for the sake of showmanship.
Like all the dances in the repertoire, more so with this one, there are particular emphases with which dancers can cross in the middle. The preferred method now is as was used in 1983 with a step-in-and-burst-out sequence, although in the interim, the leap-in and step-out method was used, putting those with a smaller stride at some disadvantage. Other figures used include salutes, swings, processing with top couple, bottom couple, side couple, before a final basket around the musician.
Wortley and Papworth gave notation for a completely different "Six Hand Reel" in the Summer 1978 edition of English Dance and Song. This comprised top couple crossing over and casting around the back of each line, crossing at the bottom and returning to place, before the "lead down" and "swing and change". Lf the Seven Champions had decided to become the definitive "Molly" dance team, perhaps they would have done just that. They were not and they did not. The strictures of "lead down" and "swing and change"" were just beginning to hurt. In the Comberton dance, two thirds of the set do not actually move for half the dance, whilst one third of a six-man set do even less! The word "spectacle" was never going to spring to mind.
To bring in more dancers - and interest - the "crossover-and-cast" was made progressive. In the first turn, the Comberton notation was adhered to The second time through brought in the logical extension of this idea with the top two couples casting around each other in a figure aptly described by the new dance’s name "U-Turns", for the first half, with a crossover with partner with cast around bottom dancer to place for the second, the third time through following suit with all six dancers in action. The "lead down" was replaced in toto by a circular hey, again bringing in more dancers rather than just the top couple.
This dance was the first created by the team which forsook the simplicity whereby the dance from one position is not radically different from another. The dance has to be learnt from each position with the casts and circular hey in mind, as this author can authenticate from sad experience of a most unexpected kind early in his career!
The "Cross Hand Polka" was also introduced at that time, again from the Wortley/Papworth Comberton notation. Discussion had already been underway to examine possible country-dance figures in a Molly-dance format. The "ladies chain" was one figure suggested, and this seemed to embellish the simpler "cross hand" figure given. In 1981, there was a membership crisis, and the possibility of four-man dances was being looked at, beyond the obvious duple minor Molly dances which the team had oftime been forced to perform as a foursome in the earlier days. Although theoretically possible, the dance was never or seldom performed as a six-man set, and at Sidmouth in 1983, two four-man sets acted in apparent co-ordination with a musician in the middle to give the appearance of something larger.
Another complication at that time, was the departure of Dave Dye to Yorkshire. Fortunately, the team had the momentum and maturity to develop without their original mentors. Although the bulk of Seven Champions bookings were still centred on the Weald of Kent, the team were just starting to reap the success of fraternising itself with a folk festival community. The team's treatment of Molly dancing had attracted interest from afar. They identified themselves and swapped ideas with like-minded groups, notably Windsor, Great Western, Stroud, South Downs and others -principally in the road outside the "Mason's Arms" near Sidmouth seafront - a notable swapshop indeed, coming after yet another Roy Dommett and Tubby Reynolds instructional!
Suddenly, everybody could dance and play a musical instrument at one and the same time. With the proliferation of so many musicians-cum-dancers, the idea was tried of extending the "1.49 Reel" into an eight-man set using four stick clashers and four musicians. Thus, the "2.98 Reel" was born with eight in line, which as far as anyone can recall was performed once only in public, and that at the last-named venue. The problems were obvious. Imagine if you can, eight in line spaced six feet apart, along a road with kerb to kerb width less than twelve feet, then you can postulate what effect sound parallax and an ellipsoid rounds figure might bring. But it could be done in a star format - at least, in theory!
Thanks to Bernie Cherry who found himself working the Weald of Kent for a time in 1980, and joining the obvious Morris team whilst incumbent there, the Seven Champions made their mark in running a Molly dance workshop at Sidmouth as part of his "Women's ritual" workshop sessions. Further workshops were held at Cranbrook, and it was evident that people from outside Kent were interested. Members were recruited from beyond a reasonable catchment area, with a mind to embellish the team at festival bookings, which were coming in on a regular basis. Among these people were myself, Chris Pitt and Grahame Upham - each experienced dancers and musicians with other forms of contemporary Morris and sword dancing.
The repertoire that we were expected to assimilate on monthly Sunday practices was not difficult, and we were all familiar with the style and timing. The repertoire was "Birds-a-Building", "College Hornpipe", "Smash the Window", "Special", "1.49 Reel" and "Five Hand Reel" . For those who made further progress, there were also "U-Turns" and "Cross-Hand Polka" -also known as "Frampton's Folly" in honour of their greatest fan.
There were two other dances around just then. One was a Chris White suggestion from just before he went to the antipodes. He suggested a six-man set simply performing a three-hand reel into four-hand reel into five-hand reel into six-hand reel. Using the three-hand reel or hey as a chorus, the new dance became known as the "3-4-5-6 Reel". That first year saw no end of teething problems. It required a fairly small set, otherwise getting into line for the final six-hand reel would prove impossible. That logic and its eventual refinement had to wait until after Sidmouth before tongues were removed out of cheek range!
The other dance was a straight Cotswold "bacca pipes" jig to the tune "Greensleeves" using the "Morris On" arrangement (Island records, HELP 6). I am assured that it is mere coincidence that evidence for such a dance exists in the Russell Wortley collection from conversations with people at Balsham. Imitation of a Cotswold dance was the actual source - but with no small piece of showmanship.
Two wizened dancers would sweep the dancing area of the previous dance, then meet up. Each would claim they had "swept this patch for years." Argument would follow, then a challenge with each dancer flinging down his broom criss-cross fashion before initiating the dance. More recently, if brooms have been mislaid, volunteers are sought from the audience, who are expected to sit back-to-back with legs outstretched at right-angles!
Despite the importing of musicians from other sources and the possibilities leading therefrom, the team's policy has always been to use one musician to play for a dance, rather than a band, principally to avoid the problem of varying tempo.
Throughout the history of the side: firstly through Chris White on anglo-concertina, then through John Gasson on fiddle, melodeon, anglo-concertina, saxophone - or whatever else he felt pleased to pick up and play, and more latterly through Paul Hurst on English concertina or melodeon, the aim has been to try and keep the tempo of the dance down to around fifty six beats per minute optimum (as measured by a metronome) albeit with variations for "swing and change".
The tunes used are/were based on those quoted in the Needham/Peck or Papworth/Wortley articles, with the exception of one tune culled from a tape of tunes collected by folklorist Ken Stubbs which replaced the "College Hornpipe" original. All composed dances use tunes which were favourites of the key musicians at that time. Most of them tend to be in common time, whether as a schottische, hornpipe or polka because it fits the style. "Smash the Window" always caused problems since 6/8 time made the dancers move just that little bit more quickly. The only other exception is the tune used for "Eddie", a waltz adapted into 5/4 time.
The other musician is Alison Thornley who joined the team from the Spelmonden dancers. She had been a dancer with Invicta Morris from Otford near Sevenoaks, where she had previously experimented with the idea of singing for a dance instead of using any other musical instrument. With another periodic membership crisis in full flow, she was welcomed into the side. More surprisingly, she found little problem in keeping the tempo down to the coveted fifty six beats per minute!
The Seven Champions have broadened their repertoire in two ways: one by "writing" dances, the other by "mutating" them from pre-existing ones. Two case-studies began with Sidmouth 1983 in mind. The idea of adapting the "1.49 Reel" dimer into a star format was spoken of but never practised. The theory was sound, but the out-of-town members were needed. In fact, it was as easy as the logic suggested, and the Steeple Claydon dance from 1978 was reborn once more as "Mornington Crescent".
Two perpendicular lines cross in the middle enabling two simultaneous reels. This is followed by contra-rotating rounds, then the stick-clashing chorus whilst the musicians continue their reel.
The first inklings of an extension of the Five Hand Reel into something more grandiose occurred at Sidmouth. First, you need the staff, then a large enough dancing space. Sidmouth arena provided both of these. At first, the two sets danced simultaneously with no conscious co-ordination. Since 1983, interaction has been increased in two ways: the "king" and "queen" on their process up the set, sidestep around the central musician into the other set where they stay; the second is a continuous reel from one set into the next when in the musician's quadrant, in a trajectory resembling an anorexic Lichfield hey.
So it was that the Seven Champions honoured their first official booking at the 29th International Folklore Festival at Sidmouth in 1983 - a baptism of fire for some, not least the author of this paper.
"Doing Sidmouth" was envisaged as the pinnacle of achievement. No consideration was given as to future development. One option was to return to the notation. Russell Wortley died on Plough Monday 1980 whilst on tour with the Cambridge Morris Men. He left his archive to the nation under the safe-keeping of the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language at the University of Sheffield. In 1981, Dave Dye and Chris White were dispatched northwards to look at it, but came away with little more that was danceable.
In fact, Russell Wortley noted the possibility of extending the "traditional" repertoire with dances like " Soldiers' Joy" and "Stoney Steps", using country dance figures from elsewhere in the nation, each sharing the common characteristic of "lead down" and "swing and change" . However, days of contentment with these figures had long passed.
There was the added problem of intra-side social mobility, with some members departing altogether or moving further away from the Weald to take up better-paid jobs. The added diversion of the fledgling side, Mr. Jorrocks Morris Dancers, formed in 1980 as yet another Headcorn breakaway faction which at one time included four members of the Seven Champions as co-members, could also be said to have impeded progress.
The main problem was that there were no dances left to adapt or re-create, or none satisfactory from the given notation. There remained the possibility of adapting what dances we already had, and/or keeping the repertoire fairly static.
The first idea was a coconut dance using real halves of coconuts, so the Bacup comparison would never materialise. The dance was to be called "Oi! You!" and started with the six-in-line reel with setting figure used in the "3-4-5-6 Reel" with "nutting". However, after an overdose of coconut milk and splintered coconut shells, the idea was dropped, but its accompanying ideas retained.
By Spring 1984, the new dance came to resemble what is today called the "Inertia Reel". "Frampton's Folly" was abandoned, but the ladies' chain figure salvaged for the initial corners' swing figure. Originally this was repeated, but was superseded the following year by a variant of the semi- "half-gyp" rescued from "Double Change Sides", more or less to give the otherwise perpetually-moving central couple a breather! The next figure was a novel "lead down" figure, which became progressive with each couple leading down in procession, then turning in and processing back, thus inverting the set. The final figure was adapted from a ceilidh dance taught by Eddie Upton, the "Eternal Triangle". However, even this onetime member of Chanctonbury Ring Morris cannot be blamed for the penchant of changing axis before each turn of figures.
Whilst "Inertia Reel" could be said to be in keeping with the "spirit" of the tradition, there was dissatisfaction with the ways things were going in the side - what has been interpreted elsewhere as the "seven year itch!" New ideas, new inspiration, and a new direction was needed.
There was a "blood-letting" at the 1984 AGM - which I was not completely aware of despite being present, mainly due to my geographical incompatibility. Proposals included dropping the words "Molly Dancers" from the team's name. All this came to nothing, but what was decided was to "adopt" a new repertoire - whatever that meant!
The upshot was that a more radical approach was taken up. Dances would be dropped from the repertoire. Any idea, however bizarre, for any totally new dance would be tried. No holds would be barred. Many new figures were tried - as they are today - and the team nearly evolved a nine-man dance, perhaps with a nod and a wink to the Great Western Morris dancers. Unfortunately, the practicality of convening consecutive practices with the same minimum requirement of nine dancers plus one musician from as far afield as Ramsgate, Ashford, and Lewisham, never mind Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, was always going to cause problems. The idea was shelved.
The explanation of developing a new dance defies analysis. Dave Dye, who has previously acted as overseer for the side's progress, returned from Yorkshire and went to live in Ramsgate, which limited his future influence. Chris Rose, the Molly, took over as "foreman", by his own admission because he had the loudest voice. However, his own modesty belies the fact that he was very quick to cull ideas from the broadest of sources, whether they were from the Clann Na Gael Irish dance team from Newcastle upon Tyne, or from a ceilidh anywhere. His unique personality and his ability to listen to all points of view also act to cement the diverse personalities the Seven Champions have to offer, whether it be myself imbued with a love of the researched tradition (or in my case tradition being researched) or anyone else more impressed by an idea that seems to "work at the time". Chris acts as "enabler" rather than a "teacher".
To evolve a new dance, what does not happen is for one egocentric member to write a dance from start to finish and expect it to be adopted unquestioned. Democracy, of sorts, reigns with everybody having their say. Somebody will suggest a new figure. It is tried - it might work, it might not. The same person might enhance his idea with further suggestions. At this point, somebody might say "Hey, isn't this the same dance we tried last year?" Everybody scratches their heads to try and remember the pros and cons of that idea. After a few practice nights, a new dance may emerge. Ideas are put forward as to how it might be improved always with "style" in mind and "how will it look to the spectator?" At the patenting stage, no one person can be said to hold copyright. The system has worked now for the past four years, adding an average of one new dance per year to the repertoire.
The tastelessly-named "Russell Wortley's Maggot" was the first fruit of the new-found radicalism, and owes very little to any dance seen or experienced elsewhere. There is a heel-and-toe step, which is in keeping with that used in the bacca pipes broom dance. The double step is a feature elsewhere, but there is little else that is not new. There is a standard Morris whole hey-except the middle couples cross over sides. There is a "follow my leader" reel, possibly using the "3-4-5-6 Reel" as precedent-or was it yet another Eddie Upton ceilidh dance? There is a crossover-into-rounds in a figure the team call "wide open spaces". And finally, for the terminally paranoid, the "final spasm" owes more to the Tiller Girls with an appreciative glance at the "Paddington Pandemonic Express" urban Molly dancers from London, our "goddaughter" team who know better than to leave untampered any outrageous or ingenious dance figure.
Many ideas fall by the wayside. Many dances are "written" in an evening's practice, only to be disputed the next week and forgotten forever. A dance called "Captain Swing's Roundabout" to the tune "Side-saddle" by Russ Conway came and went. Other ideas stick.
Our dance in 5/4 time came about for no good reason other than a need was felt to create a "new" dance. Parameters: only four dancers and one musician present at practices. What is missing from the current repertoire A hand-clapping dance. At this point, I recalled that at the time of "Russell Wortley's Maggot" and "Captain Swing" the idea had been tried for a dance in an offbeat time signature, thanks largely to the first visit of Australian band "Tansey's Fancy" (later to be called "Mara!") to Britain, playing a repertoire of Macedonian dance music in time signatures non-divisible by multiples of four! Great, a hand-clapping dance in 5/4 time!
It took three or four practices to perfect the clapping, and then no usefu1 figures were contemplated to match the novel dances. Things were complicated by trying out ideas for a further dance in 6/4 time. By January 1987, with the challenge of an Easter booking at London’s South Bank arts complex to honour, it was felt that a decision to adopt one or the other dance was required; the 6/4 dance lost, and the "Upton upon Seven Champion Dance" born. Suddenly, eight or more dancers flocked to Thursday night practices. Problems evaporated.
The actual figures were written in a hurry, and based upon those already in our repertoire within other dances, but for the unusual time signature. There is a right-and-left through, stars, "wide-open-spaces", and a figure based on the Cambridgeshire "dodging" step in the Comberton special Molly dance to round the dance off.
There have been a number of "ad hoc" dances created on the spur of the moment, largely to compensate for lack of numbers at stands. A four-man version of "Eddie" was danced once only, then taken back and worked on at Thursday night practices, and so far has yet to see the light of day again.
Another "novel" dance based on the "1.49 Reel" was born when a surplus of musicians at a dance stand coincided with an overall shortage of dancers, such that the eight-man "Mornington Crescent" was unperformable. With no small showmanship, the dance was introduced as "our most dangerous dance" where two stick-clashers bear up to each other backed by a posse of four melodeon players. With the leading notes of the tune, the four musicians reel as in "'1.49" whilst the stick clashers do absolutely nothing. The latter come into their own with their stick chorus with musicians standing four in line behind them. After eight bars of vigorous sticking, the two collapse onto chairs brought on for the purpose and are fanned and cooled by a crowd of supporters whilst the musicians recommence their reel. The whole thing, being so ludicrous, has never deserved the privilege of a name, and is known privately as the "1.49 Spoof".
Returning to the aspect of showmanship, the unique talent of Chris Pitt has been exploited. A natural "'fool" and actor, when lack of numbers permit, he is allowed to dance opposite an "invisible" dancer during "Special Molly" , and develop what repartee he can, turning a plain affair into something totally bizarre!
The Seven Champions have been criticised by some people from Cambridgeshire and elsewhere for "not quite being in the true spirit of Molly" - whatever that means - at least, according to one self-appointed, "guardian of the Fenland tradition" signing himself anonymously in a Sidmouth 1983 newsletter.
This is true. The team do not dance on Plough Monday in Kent, where the custom has no historical substrate, although there have been invitations to travel northwards up the M11 by some of the revival teams there. One accolade handed to us was the organisation of a Molly dance workshop in Downham Market, not too far from the hub of the "tradition", by the Ouse William Morris dancers, who had already attended a workshop run by Cyril Papworth. In fact, Seven Champions' workshops are based on Molly dance a la Russell Wortley notation, but an attempt was made to re-create the Madingly plough dance cited in archives, and this was danced out at least at Whittlesey this year.
For myself, I am trying to build bridges by researching the history of Plough Monday customs in the Cambridgeshire area, principally using newspaper archives, whilst maintaining an active presence "in the field" on the day, when the uncertain climate lets me out of the Garden of England.
To reiterate, the Champions never set out to become "the" Molly dance team. If this title has been thrust upon the side, it was their omnipresence at folk festivals coupled with the indigenous local "revival" teams’ reluctance to dance "the Molly" on any day other than Plough Monday that was to blame. If the history of the Morris dance revival will not mention it elsewhere, let me state that more "Molly dancing" takes place on and around Plough Monday in Cambridgeshire in the mid- to late 1980s than the rest of the country put together, but the Seven Champions themselves have few imitators.
What has been achieved is to put a distinct style into a perceived vision of "Molly dancing", much in the same way as the Gloucestershire Old Spot Morris dancers have done with the Longborough tradition, or the Shropshire Bedlams with Welsh Border Morris. How the Seven Champions will be remembered in years to come will depend on the sympathies and/or prejudices of future commentators.
Throughout the history of the team, one aim has been to dance well a limited repertoire of dances, which today scarcely amounts to one dozen. The evolution has been erratic - even illogical - after the Needham/Peck and Wortley/Papworth possibilities had exhausted themselves. Some of the dances will seem ill-conceived and lacking in simplicity, in the pursuit of something visually more exciting. With hindsight, such criticism is easy. Nonetheless, these are still dances in the repertoire.
The team today has an average age in the early thirties, with an increasing ratio of parents to bachelors. Membership is open to all, but new members tend to be experienced dancers from other disciplines. Only four members can be accurately said to be living in the Weald, and only one of those is an original member. Attendance at practices can be appalling, especially in winter, involving a trek of up to thirty miles along motorways and/or country lanes for some. The teenage bikers who would traverse the length and breadth of the country at short notice have gone. What has been gained is an experienced team who are mindful of the skills required in "putting on a show", with style, energy, and evident enthusiasm; a team who have concocted a series of figures and have woven them into a dance framework with noted effect; a team full of latent, if not actual showmanship; a team who actually deserve an ovation rather than mere applause at the end of their dance.
And the Dance still goes on . . . ", Music-the Alternative Music Paper, 3 (1984), 22.
Bacon, Lionel, A Handbook of Morris Dancing, The Morris Ring, 1974, 299-301.
"Champions of Molly", Southern Rag, 5:1 (1984), 17.
"Morris Matters interviews Chris Rose", Morris Matters, 6:3 (1984), 20.
Papworth, Cyril, "The Comberton Broom Dance", English Dance and Song, 36:1 (1974), 30.
"Report on the Molly Workshop, 12th February, 1983" Morris Matters, 6:1 (1983), 10.
"The Seven Champions - Stomping Down in Kent", English Dance and Song, 44:3 (1982), 20.
Wortley, Russell and Cyril Papworth, "Molly Dancing in South-West Cambridgeshire", English Dance and Song, 40:2 (1978), 58-59.
| Dance | Date | Tune | Form | Source |
| Three Hand Mummers' Reel | 1977 | Title unknown | 3-in-line | unknown |
| Double change Sides | 1978 | "The Oyster Girl" | 6 man set | Needham and Peck (1933) |
| Birds-A-Building | 1978 | original | 6 man set | Needham and Peck |
| Broom Dance | 1978 | "Kafoozalum" | solo | Cyril Papworth (1974) |
| Steeple Clayton with sticks | 1978 | "Old Molly Oxford" | 4-in-line | Lionel Bacon (1974) |
| Steeple Clayton with clapping | 1978 | "Old Molly Oxford" | 4-in-line | Lionel Bacon |
| 1.49 Reel | 1978 | "Old Molly Oxford" | 4-in-line | Lionel Bacon |
| Smash the Window | 1979 | original | 6 man set | Needham and Peck |
| College Hornpipe | 1979 | "Smith, the Gallant Fireman" or "John Barleycorn" | 6 man set | Needham and Peck |
| Six Hand Reel | 1979 | "Old Molly 0xford" | 6-in-line | cf Steeple Claydon |
| Special Molly | 1980 | original | 6 man set | own dance based on Wortley and Papworth (1978) |
| Molly's Complaint (Five Hand Reel) | 1980 | "Pigeon on the Gate" or "Byker Hill" | 5 man set | own dance based on idea from Roy Dommett |
| U-Turns | 1982 | "Castles in the Air" or "Just as the Tide was a-flowing" | 6 man set | own dance based on Six Hand Reel notated by Wortley and Papworth |
| Frampton's Folly | 1982 | "Manchester Hornpipe" | 4 man set | Wortley and Papworth |
| Broomstick Jig | 1982 | "Greensleeves" | solo/double | Bacca Pipes Jig |
| 3-4-5-6 Reel | 1982 | "Mad Moll of the Cheshire Hunt"or "Star of the County Down" | 6 man set | own creation |
| 2.98 Reel | 1982 | "Seven Tears" | 8-in-line | logical dimer of 1.49 Reel |
| Mornington Crescent | 1983 | "Seven Tears" | 8-in-line | illogical dimer of 1.49 Reel |
| Double Five Hand Reel | 1983 | "Byker Hill" | two sets of five men | logical dimer of Five Hand Reel |
| Inertia Reel | 1984 | "Negro Sand Jig" or "List for a Sailor" | 6 man set | own creation using figures from Double Change Sides and Frampton's Folly |
| Russell Wortley's Maggot | 1985 | "Lemmie Brasil's No. 2" | 6 man set | own creation |
| Eddie (Upton upon Seven Champion Dance) | 1987 | "The French Assembly" | 8 man set | own creation in 5/4 time using figures from Birds-A-Building, Russell Wortley's Maggot, and Special Molly |
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Special Thanks to George Frampton for his permission to reproduce his paper here.
copyright 1987 George E Frampton