Dance Like A Girl - Issue 02 by Dance Like A Girl

Dance Like a Girl

We are the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn

The Alewife The ale wife was a female married to the profession of brewing. As part of the cunning folk, people who kept knowledge of plants and healing, she would create medicinal brews/ales for her community. As brewing become more industrial, and men saw the economic potential, the practise began its decline. A decline which increased in pace after the beer purity act of 1512, stating that all brewers were only allowed to use hops or barley, getting rid of most of the plants needed to create complex medicinal brews. Add to this increasing ferocity of the witch trials. targeting the cunning folk as well as the elderly or women with economic power (because there is nothing more dangerous than that), the alewife becomes a real target. So much so that the image of the alewife has been taken, and used to create the stereotypical witch. With her large black hat, drawing public attention when in public and she had

17th Century Woodcut of an Alewife. Sourceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; godecookery.com

products to sell, and broomstick, placed outside the shop when she was open for business, have become two key symbols of witches. Cauldrons from brewing and the ownership of a cat, useful for pest control, have also found their way into this image

Below: Cuteasfolk illustration

Brewsters in an Age of Industry Beer and brewing has, historically, been a woman’s domain. So how then did beer drinking in modern Britain become a masculine pursuit, and how have steps been taken to redress the gender balance? Brewing is arguably one of the most ancient activities in human history, and one in which women were particularly important actors. Four thousand years ago, for instance, the Sumerians worshipped Ninkasi, the goddess of beer, indicating that the production of beer was woman’s role. This remained the case throughout most of Europe until the seventeenth century. Of course, this was linked to the fact that beer was for millennia a safe drink for all, and also an important source of nutrients for small children, for whom it was expected the mother would provide. At the advent of protocapitalism in the eighteenth century, men began to elbow their way in, with their sights on profiteering by carrying out production on a larger, industrial scale. For the first time in this story, women lost out. Throughout the modern period, from at least the late eighteenth century, public society in Britain has been overwhelmingly male. The obverse of this was that the roles of women were predominantly confined to the family, carried out in private. As demonstrated by Emma Griffen’s brilliant social history of Britain in the early stages of industrialisation, modern capitalism brought about an appreciable improvement in opportunities for men, whilst the scope available to women shrank slightly with the disappearance of light agricultural jobs. Britain’s towns and cities of industry were male spaces. It is therefore not surprising that for most of the last three centuries, social drinking was an activity reserved for, or at the very least controlled (to use this word advisedly[ !] ) by men. The identity of beer and pubs in modern times was based upon contemporary notions of masculinity, and

itself contributed to reinforcing these concepts. Only a ‘lad’ could properly ‘get tanked up’ at the ‘boozer’ whilst keeping his social standing intact. Women were expected to stay at home. For most of the twentieth century, pubs remained male strongholds, and the vast majority of women who frequented drinking houses would only do so with their husband or (male) partner. Once inside the bar, or more likely the lounge, they were constantly subject to male censorship and mediation: ‘they came as sisters, wives, girlfriends, daughters and nieces, but hardly ever only as women.’ Whilst some forward-thinking breweries had in the interwar period made attempts to clean up their estates with a view to attracting newly-enfranchised ‘respectable middle-class women’, there was in reality little overall change in the proportion of women visiting public houses. Beer and pubs remained tainted with an insidious misogyny, which gave rise to breweries selling beer by names such as ‘Top Totty’ and ‘Old Slapper’. Unsurprisingly, objectification, even if juxtaposed against ‘playful’ cartoon imagery, was prone to cause alienation. A recent survey, conducted by brewing behemoth, Molson Coors, found that 42% of women interviewed had been put off beer by ‘macho publicity’ alone. So long as this vicious cycle of ‘casual’ sexism persisted, beer seemed to be reserved only for blokes. To borrow a similarly crass slogan from the confectionary industry, ‘it’s not for girls’. However, there are now many reasons to be optimistic, and raise a glass in union to the future. In 1997, Sara Barton set up a brewing plant on her parents’ farm, near Grantham, and in doing so founded the Brewster’s Brewing Company, taking the traditional name for a female brewer. Ostensibly a biochemist turned brewer, she was actually from the very start of her adult life a brewing scientist, specialising in yeast genetics during her B.Sc. studies. In the 1980s, Sara took an M.Sc. course in brewing at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, and then entered the

industry through a graduate training programme at ‘Courage’, a large firm with a wide portfolio of familiar brands such as Foster’s and John Smith’s. In 2011, Sara joined together with six other brewsters under the name ‘Project Venus’, which championed women in brewing. And in the following year, she was awarded the ‘British Brewer of the Year’ award by the British Guild of Beer Writers, the first woman to take the title since its Inception in 1988.

Brewster’s is now based on a much larger plant, working five days a week to keep up with demand, and Sara’s beers can be found throughout the country. As an antidote to the ‘slap and tickle’ pump clips described above, Sara has chosen to name many of her brews after ‘Women of Wonder’, such as Annie Edson Taylor, who in 1901 was the first person to ride over Niagra Falls in a barrel; and Martha Jane Canary (a.k.a. Calamity Jane). In a globalised world, the appeal of food and drink with an identity is an appealing concept. In Britain, for instance, our modern dining habits are founded upon an enormous choice of cuisines based on various national and ethnic cultures. Problematic though this may be, these appellations are seldom made to exclude outsiders. Even though many cultures exercise strict and exacting practices with meals and their preparation, food and drink when shared are supposed to bring people together. It would be reassuring to think that the historians of the next millennium, taking a long view of beer’s venerable history might well mark up the period 1700-2000 only as an aberration, when men drank beer and women stayed behind to look after the family. Whilst modern industrial capitalism has unquestionably been of enormous creative power, the solidifying of class and gender boundaries has tragically laid waste to the potential talents of many millions of people, whilst excluding them on arbitrary grounds from enjoying some of the most simple of pleasures.

The French poet, historian, and essayist, Hillaire Belloc, in 1912, wrote: ‘when you have lost your Inns drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’ In reflecting on the exclusion of one half of the adult population from sharing in a drinking culture based on conviviality, friendship, camaraderie, and neighbourliness, it is indeed tempting to reflect that something has been lost for a very long time indeed. Thankfully, it appears to have been found once more. Sources include: Peter Brown, Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2003). Melissa Cole, ‘Farewell to the Ladies’ Glass’, in Roger Protz, ed., CAMRA at Forty (St. Albans: CAMRA, 2011). Melissa Cole, ‘Taking the Beard out of Beer’, http:// www.letmetellyouaboutbeer.co.uk/ Geoffrey Hunt, ‘The Pub, The Village and The People’, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Kent, (1989). Brewster’s Brewery, http://www.brewstersbrewery.com

Matt Simons October 2017

Gingerbread Illustration of overlapping figures.

Advice from Flower Beard Can you tell us something about yourself? Hello readers, My name is flower beard, a new addition to the Dance Like A Girl team, and I present to you the advice column, Why am I writing an advice column? I will be able to bring my wisdom and experience to all those looking for morris related advice. Why have I been chosen? I have a lot of experience in the morris community. Although Much of my time has been spent in a variety of pubs, Allowing me to sample the widest range of dancing and music possible. I have found myself as an unaffiliated morris person, and joining the dance like a girl teams brings me back into the morris community.

AT WHAT POINT SHOULD I CLEAN MY TANKARD? Doesn’t drinking the contents count as cleaning. I guess to be hygienic you could use spirits to sanitise it at the end of the day.

CAN YOU SUGGEST ANY HANGOVER CURES? Many of the cures I could suggest are simply methods to avoid the hangover. Continuing to drink can get you through a festival, working on the little and often rule. High calorie and high fat foods also work well, giving your body energy and something to soak up any remaining alcohol.

HOW WOULD YOU TEACH A BEGINNER TO CAPER? Well, I’m not sure how to answer this one. You just do it don’t you? I’ve heard some interesting methods of teaching this particular move, such as, kicking your legs back and forth while sat on an invisible stool, riding a bicycle backwards or trying to stamp on the toes of your other foot. Either way the dancer should be attempting to gain enough lift to jump a small dog or a toddler.

HOW DID YOU CREATE YOUR FLOWER BEARD? Good question, this creation resulted from years of trial and error. I have found that florist foam, soaked with a flower feed mix, is the most effective way to create a complex arrangement which can last a few days. I have also created versions from seed, bedding them into foam and letting them grown in! This means I always have a backup arrangement.

Morris in unusual places Images of morris folk in unexpected places. Warning: Some of these images have been photoshopped and give unrealistic ideas of the places morris folk can reach.

The Spurn Lighthouse. Hull.

Fountains Abbey.

Cabinet undergoing conservation work. Confusing the dog.

Window box dancing.

Hey, they look like Morris dancers!

Carved Bench Ends in Altarnun, Cornwall. Possibly an early depiction of Morris Dancing, definitely rather interesting! Thank you to Ed Fox for finding, writing and sending us this. You can find out the history of these carvings on his blog.

Find out more: Hey, they look like morris dancers Or on our facebook page

What made you start morris dancing? Morris dancers get asked a lot of questions about the tradition or costumes, the worst question of all is ‘why do you do this?’ or ‘What made you want to?’, it is only so difficult because I don’t have an answer. I don’t know why I do this.

So here is a list of possible answers to this question.

If I didn’t, who would?

I sat slightly too near to some morris dancers in a pub, woke up a week later in kit.

Online dating wasn’t working.

Indoctrination as a very small child.

For some reason I thought it looked like fun and years later here I am.

I really needed the exercise.

Any excuse to dress up.

One family member left her side, I was offered as replacement.

I relented.

A very charming young man talked me into it.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

It is the largest drinking club in the country.

Snapshot: One event a month August Moira Furnace Folk Festival Enjoying a relaxed weekend dancing with a scratch side called Cuckoos Morris. Nice to see an event with a lot of border sides!

September Morris Federation AGM Day of Dance. My second trip to Hull this year, it is such a lovely place to dance! With many open spaces allowing for large audiences. We also got to dance on a moving bridge.

October Grantham Beer Festival St. Wulframs Church put on a wonderful and welcoming beer festival. It is good to see churches open up to the community like this, as it provides a wonderful dancing space.

Images from Sally and John Bird. Featuring Cuckoos Morris, Sutton Masque, Rack A Back, and Bourne Borderers

Border Morris Top Trumps A fun game for morris folk of all ages, which compares morris sides on the Important stuff! Here we have two cards from the border tradition,

Bourne Borderers

Poacher Morris

Hat Height Height of the tallest decorated hat in the team. (Inches)

Age Range Age difference between the eldest and youngest active dancer. (Years)

Bourne Borderers A mixed border morris side from Bourne in Lincolnshire!

Hat Height

Beer

Age Range

Consumption

Beer Consumption

1 (t.total) to 5 (Anstey Morris Men)

Facepaint Complexity

Biggest Tart

Side Age

Want to be featured? We want all cards to be written by a member of their side! Send us a message! All we need is the name of your side, a short description, your stats, and a lovely picture.

not a border side? you can still join in, we are currently working on categories relevant to different traditions.

Facepaint Complexity 1 (single colour, no pattern) to 3 (3+ colours and/ or complex patterns)

Biggest Tart Poacher Morris From the city of Lincoln, where the streets are paved...

Hat Height

Age Range

Number of sides the biggest morris tart plays/dances with. (Including the side on the card)

Beer Consumption

Facepaint Complexity

Side Age

Biggest Tart

How long the side has been going! (in years)

Side Age

For our readers This issue has been a lot of fun to put together for you, and that is not just due to the amount of beer we consumed while researching, as we were able to write on subjects which interest and excite us.

Thank you to Matt Simons, FlowerBeard, Ed Fox, and John Bird, for their contributions. We believe the more voices we have the more interesting this will be. Next issue will be released 29th January 2018, featuring wassails and other new year traditions (and maybe something about Christmas, if we must). As well as flowerbeardsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; advice column, and other completely unrelated but very interesting items. Thank for your continued support! With love, Cute as Folk & the dance like a girl team

We have badges! If you ever wanted a lovely enamel pin badge of our logo, they now exist! Where might you get one? As they are currently being produced we hope to have them shortly before Christmas! A list of events shall be posed on Facebook, giving you some chance of hunting us down for a badge.

Fancy a summer meet-up? Because our summer is not already frantically busy, we were thinking of maybe organising a small event. Letting people from the community meet up, dance together, and share new things. If we have support, this might happen. Maybe.

Thank you, See you next time.

Cute As Folk