Could you tell us more about yourselves: How you & and Alison introduce Cornish Step Dancing to local schools?
Yes, Alison and I take on various persona and costume from history to tell the story of Cornish dance, people like Harry and Carrie. They were itinerant entertainers in the St. Austell area back in the early part of the 1900s. We don’t know an awful lot about them except for a few pictures on postcards. They weren’t even called Harry and Carrie, it was a nickname they were given after a popular song of the time. But we have a picture of her step dancing and it is a story that works well, especially for schools
We take Cornish dance workshops out to schools whenever the opportunity arises. One of our favourite projects of the year is the St. Piran’s Day festival in Bodmin. In the weeks coming up to that we go around to all the local schools, and we teach them two or three Cornish dances. On the day the children parade down through the town to Mount Folly in Bodmin, all crowd in together and do those dances, each in their own ways. It’s absolutely chaotic but it’s a wonderful experience.
Our most recent school’s project was part of the Cornish National Music Archive’s “Music of the Clay Country”. We took a workshop around to local schools introducing children to some of the dances that were done at the Tea Treats, another bastion of Cornish tradition.
What is a tea treat? And the history behind them?
Tea Treats in Cornwall were a very interesting 19th century social phenomena that reached well into the 20th century. They were a moral and humanitarian response within Cornish non-conformist chapel culture to what was seen as the excesses of capitalism and consumerism. Cornwall became industrialised very early on due to the mining industry. Without the restraints of modern health and safety legislation, working conditions could be poor and dangerous and there were concerns that people were resorting to the “opiate of drink” to find some form of escape. Not helped by the cynical practice of some mining consortiums in paying miners through the offices of the local kiddlywink [ alehouse ].
There is a tendency now to look back on non-conformist chapels and teetotalism as a very rigid, austere culture but they were a response to the wider social problems of the time. They were politically radical, seeking to provide education and improvement in quality of life. Alongside their Bible studies, they also taught reading and writing and encouraged musical literacy.
The received wisdom is that chapel culture discouraged the feast day traditions and dances that reached back to the mediaeval world. Brenda Wootton, the singer who introduced Cornish music to the world stage in the 60s and 70s said that Wesley saved our souls but lost us our culture. A closer look at the Tea Treat traditions of these chapels tells a quite different story. We find local saints days and parish feasts being encouraged and celebrated together with the traditions that went with them such as the furry dance.
The Serpent Dances were perhaps the most well known of the Tea Treat Dances. They had evolved in Cornwall from the mediaeval Farandole and involved hundreds of dancers hand in hand in a line who formed spirals, circles and serpent shapes often led by the band. The Snail Creep was another popular dance involving large numbers that was a tradition in the eastern part of the Clay Country. Rather than a line formation this was formed by a procession of couples who coiled into the centre and back out led by a couple holding up branches to represent the tentacles of a snail.
What is the significance of dancing in spirals?
These shapes are reminiscent of the labyrinth rock carvings at Rocky Valley near Tintagel and one cannot help but wonder if there is a spiritual or mythical significance. At the same time, they are a fairly obvious way of managing a large number of dancers in a line, you can only do certain things without having an accident somewhere. The effect of a long line of dancers interweaving and passing each other, sometimes face to face in the opposite direction is hypnotic, especially if you have a large, loud band thrown into the mix.
Are there any traditions that you’ve learned about, that you would like to see being revived in the near future?
It is probably as much about maintaining as reviving customs these days but Guise / Geeze Dancing has always been my favourite. They are the perfect medium for a variety of traditions from step dancing to community singing. There are examples across Cornwall with a long continuity and others which are revived and indeed newly created along traditional lines.