45 f
What we didn’t know was that not only Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, was visiting, but also David Cameron. So the press pack was even larger and it was just mental. We didn’t know that Cameron was going to be there. But we just did what we were paid to do, dance and dance, and I managed to get a top hat on Cameron’s head. Which then appeared across the international press.” The Belles were on the front cover of the LA Times, the Evening Standard and going global fast.
“There was a disparaging tone towards Cameron, which the gesture was meant to be. It was just a bit of fun, but obviously it had political overtones. It was an inappropriate event, in my mind, for Cameron to have come along to. Because it wasn’t a party political broadcast, it was St George’s Day, which shouldn’t be appropriated by any political party. I think it was deeply inap- propriate that he was there in the first place. The picture was the one they didn’t want anyone to see. And I lost that hat. The aides said they couldn’t find it, but I think they were annoyed that the photo had been taken. Not cheap, those hats. What are we, made of money?”
In another sweet moment, Michelle added “And that year we pushed the bully boys out of the way! Noses were out of joint.”
Morris is notorious for injuries, and the very day she lost her hat Ellen also ruptured her Achilles tendon, ending up in hospital, then in plaster for several months. “Jumping up to do an amazing jig, we heard – crack!” said Michelle.
“When I was hobbling round,” said Ellen “morris dancers would come up to me and go, ‘Achilles’. You need to treat yourself like an athlete, a professional dancer.”
the Trembling Bells who, said Alex, “played a track in 5/4, the most unmorris time signature”. The Belles were also a part of the remarkable 5000 Morris Dancers project, an anarchic weekend event at the Southbank Centre with a large-scale installation of morris-inspired folk-pop art by David Owen, enhanced by film, dance, music and mayhem.
A The effervescent Belles Of London City look forward to
“Working on our style, learning more dances,” said Michelle. “Teaming up with other dancers. Taking it in slightly different directions. Festivals, busking, other bands.” “Not the tradition, but Belles style,” said Ellen. “Taking morris dancing to a new audience. And getting paid for it! There’s nothing we can’t dance to.” Alex and Michelle intervened: “Dubstep! Northern soul! And silent disco morris at Sidmouth.”
The last word came from Ellen: “Oh and we want jig dolls. If anyone wants to make jig dolls, get in touch.”
These vibrant dancers would make proud the women morris stalwarts of history, though a million miles from the remarkable work of Mary Neal and the Esperance Morris with whose present company they have of course danced. They bring such a fresh atti- tude to all they do, especially with their zingy take on London tra- ditions.
Catch them on St George’s Day busking round Leadenhall (watch out world!) and on the South Bank with Hammersmith Morris Men and Woodside Morris. The Belles are ringing.
www.bellesoflondoncity.co.uk F
summer of festivals followed. Rob da Bank booked the Belles for his Camp Bestival, and they also graced Glastonbury Park Stage, Laugharne and Port Eliot, fit- ting in a surprise dance at Shirley Collins’s birthday party in July, and an amazing night in Glasgow with
Illustration: Alison Merry
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