Molly dance
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Molly dancing is a form of English Morris dance, traditionally done by out of work ploughboys in midwinter in the 19th century.
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[edit] History
Molly dancers have been recorded in many parts of the English Midlands and East Anglia. It died out finally in the 1930s, the last dancers seen dancing in Littleport near Ely, in 1934(?).
The only recorded Molly dances come from Comberton and Girton, villages just outside Cambridge, researched by Russell Wortley and Cyril Papworth.
[edit] Traditions
Molly dancing is most associated with Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany. Tradition has it that as a way of filling the gap between Christmas and the start of the Spring ploughing season, the ploughboys would tour around the village landowners, offering to dance for money. Those who refused would be penalised in various ways (see Trick or treat) including having a furrow ploughed across the offender's lawn.
The dancers, wishing to gain employment from those same landowners shortly afterwards, would attempt to conceal their identities by blacking their faces with soot and dressing up in a modified version of their Sunday Best, typically black garments adorned with coloured scarves and other fripperies. It was originally an all-male tradition but with one of the members - the Molly - dressed up as a woman. Molly Dancing has enjoyed a popular revival in East Anglia the most successful being The Ouse Washes Molly Dancers (www.ousewashes.com).
[edit] The Modern Tradition
Molly dancing was recreated by the Cambridge Morris Men in the 1950s, and the Morris dance revival of the 1970s saw the creation of many new sides, now usually involving both men and women.
Modern Molly Dancing demonstrates the clearest distinction between "re-enactment of tradition" and "modern interpretation of tradition" of modern morris dancing. Elaine Bradtke wrote a PhD thesis on the inherent post modernism of the Seven Champions - one of the first and best examples of Modern Molly dance. Many other teams have developed Molly inspired by the unhistorical but very effective military formations of Seven Champions (eg Ouse Washes, Gog Magog, Handsome Molly in New Jersey) whilst others have taken it in new directions - equally unhistorical but at their best equally effective in very different ways - eg Norwich Shitwitches (now renamed Kit Witches), Pig Dyke Molly.
