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The next evening found me in the cathedral town of Ely, enjoying a
performance of the Ely and Littleport Riot (also known as “the Riot”),
a women’s Border Morris side, on the banks of the River Great Ouse.
“Border Morris” refers to dances from the English-Welsh border—dances
Chris describes as loose and flowing, with a focus on the shape of the
dance. Border dancers generally wear colourfully decorated clothing.
According to their website, the Riot’s costumes are unique: black skirts
“to represent the good black soil of the fenlands,” red handkerchiefs “to
remember the Ely and Littleport food riots of 1816,” and waistcoats of
different colors “allowing each dancer to express her own individuality.”
The women had decorated their waistcoats with badges—souvenirs from
places the group had danced—and wore bells on their ankles or shoes.
The half-dozen male musicians played the banjo, fiddle, melodeon, snare
drum, bodhran, and harmonica.

There are several different styles of Morris dance, and I asked Maggie
Kent to contrast the two I saw. While Cotswold dancing has “a huge
variety of ‘showing off’ steps,” says Maggie, Border uses one step
throughout an entire dance—usually the Border step (LR, LRL; RL, RLR).
However, unlike most Border sides, the Riot also uses single-step and
sometimes the traditional double-step. Also, while Cotswold has large
numbers of both “stick and hanky dances,” as Maggie calls them, most
Border sides are “stick only.” The Riot and two other ladies’ groups
are the only Border sides she knows of who use handkerchiefs. Lastly,
Maggie mentions that Cotswold sides never “black up”—blacken their
faces—or wear masks, as almost all Border sides do. Two who use other
colours are Green Dragon and Red Leicester. Again, the Riot and the two
other aforementioned ladies’ sides differ from the norm, in not doing
this. Maggie explains the origin of the practice: “One may surmise that
the traditional Cotswold Morris was long established and accepted by
the community . . . whereas Border [was] more subversive [and] the
participants had a need for disguise.”

To see the two groups in action, The Ely and Littleport Riot dances alongside the River Great Ouse.
see: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=RqEdP8yZJyw
for the Riot and https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=2CPiyo
zhN8I&spfreload=10 for Coton.
I’m told that the two sides are
connected by marriages and
partnerships, and often dance
together. I feel fortunate to
have had the pleasure of seeing
both groups perform in person.
Their dancing is an expression
of joy, and is a joy to watch.

Folk Dancer Online — 7 R e t u r n t o Table of Co ntents www.ofda.ca