Tue, 01 Dec 2009 10:28p.m.
A scene from Morris: A Life With Bells On
By Ali Ikram
It's a quaint English folk dance that is often cruelly lampooned – and now Morris dancing is the subject of a film.
Morris: A Life With Bells On premiered in Auckland tonight.
Despite attempts made by puritans to suppress it, and occasional mocking, Morris dancing has survived for hundreds of years. Clubs are dotted around the world.
"What we prefer is for people to laugh with us, not at us," says Helen Hargraves, a Morris dancer from Auckland. "It's lovely to see people's faces light up."
The mockumentary tells the story of Morris man Derecq Twist. Derecq is banned in England after creating a new form of the dance - extreme Morris.
The film was written by and stars Charles Oldham, and was inspired by the dinner table conversations he heard while living with a Morris dancing family as a teenager.
Derecq escapes to LA and brings his high-octane brand of the folk dance to life with the help of a high camp posse, a point for debate at the Seattle Film Festival.
"Someone said we were being homophobic by having an overtly gay Morris dancing crew," says Oldham, "and then this guy stands up - he was about 5' 5", bald, very tanned and had a big beard. He said, 'As a homosexual Morris man, the only thing you got wrong is we don't dance in Venice - we dance in Laguna Beach, thank you.'"
The British actor is busy promoting the film, but says his next project could possibly tackle that other great English tradition – gardening.
If even Oliver Cromwell couldn't stamp out Morris dancing, then you may as well grab two hankies and join them.
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