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week off work and “worked like the clappers – my eyes were revolving like washing machines” to make corsets. “Alex found the dresses, I brought the corsets, and when Alex and Ellen put them on, I found it hard not to shed tears of joy ’cos they’re love- ly, younger than me and lovely slim girls.”
“When I did the film” [Still Folk Dancing… After All These I
Years], Ellen added, “I asked people, do you change your personal- ity when you dance? And they said ‘Oh yeah, when I put the baldric on’. Putting on the corsets is putting on the kit. It just hap- pens to be sexy.”
n top hats and corsets, the Belles took off to Sidmouth Folk Festival “on the off-chance,” said Michelle. “We thought, let’s just go down there and ply our wares. One day we went down to the seafront in our corsets.” Stroud Ladies gave the Belles one of their slots where they were spotted by Sidmouth artistic director Joan Crump, who invited the Belles to dance for the EFDSS reception. There they met Shirley Collins, first lady of English folk and EFDSS president. “God, she was so warm to us,” said Michelle. “It was a real tearjerker. It was abso- lutely terrifying. I got really nervous in those days before danc- ing. But the fact that there was Martin Carthy, Shirley Collins and Eliza Carthy who’ve seen hundreds of morris teams and been brought up in that world. And Brian Tasker, then Squire of the Morris Ring, was there.”
Ellen takes up the story. “So the pressure was really on. It was enormous. I have to say, the fact that Shirley literally ran up to us afterwards, and publicly said as soon as we finished dancing, how much she loved what we are doing and its integrity. It was the most wonderful thing. In front of all those people as well! It gave us a massive boost.”
“People were really taken aback at how three girls could stand up and do what we do when we hadn’t come from any tradition ourselves, hadn’t been apprenticed by any side, just got up and done the thing. Just three people doing jigs.”
Sidmouth audiences were astonished when the girls danced for Belshazzar’s Feast, capering on to Benny Hill’s chase music. “And then we did Lumps Of Plum Pudding,” said Alex. “I didn’t really have in my head what to expect from Sidmouth. I’d never been before. Multiple baptisms of fire!”
Going from strength to strength, the Belles heard that dance slots were available for dancers turning up in kit at the Leicester Square launch of the film Morris: A Life With Bells On, where they did a “jig or two in between their dance out” with the Hammer- smith Morris Men. “They’re technically brilliant,” said Alex. Ellen admires their “military precision”. And Michelle adds: “We learnt so much from them. It’s so exciting! They jump so high.”
Then BBC Radio 1 DJ Rob da Bank booked the Belles for a pre- festival event at Koko nightclub in Camden. “It was packed,” said Michelle. “At midnight we were on stage, and then we went down in the crowd. It was a bit crazy ’cos people were a little bit off their faces. Trying to grab us. It was awe-inspiring, just like a mad dream.” Though the crowd pulled the girls’ ribbons, good- natured as ever they taught revellers Shepherd’s Hey and other morris dances.
It was on the 23rd April, the Belles’ founding date, just before the general elections, that they made history. Invited back to the Leadenhall Market celebrations, they were, according to Michelle “A different outfit this time. Watch out!”
“We went for it, didn’t we?” said Ellen. “‘Cos we’d learnt from last year and had a bit of confidence. We were really, really pushy. We pushed through the crowds, trying to get into the press pack.
At 5000 Morris dancers with Terry The Fool. (Ellen was invalided out…)
Photo: Judith Burrows
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