Studio Brief 2 - Visual Journalist MORRIS PRACTICE RESEARCH VISIT

VISIT TO LEEDS MORRIS MEN DANCE PRACTICE
Having started to pursue the theme of Morris Dancing I have already met up with a Morris dancer to interview him about Morris traditions and cultures, but this left me curious about the actual dances and the dancers themselves. To answer more of my questions I organised to visit the dancer in practice, with his team, the Leeds Morris Men.

So far I have learnt about the different traditions in Morris, and the differences and qualities that define them from one another. From the outset, I had assumed Morris dancers were all doing the same thing but in indifferent costumes, so visiting a practice was a perfect opportunity to understand more about specific traditions. 

Documenting through photography, video recording, observational drawings and collected ephemera, I have sourced some new research and material on which to progress my work. 

As a Yorkshire team who follow Cotswold Morris traditions, the side danced with handkerchiefs and wooden sticks, with bells on. All components that I could use to visually communicate their specific traditions. 

INTENTIONS
My intentions at this stage are to create a book that communicates the wealth of traditions across Morris folk culture, and the qualities that define these. Costume particularly being important to the aesthetic of each group, I carried out some observational drawings of the Fool of the team.

Considering the audio dynamic of Morris dancing, I made some sound maps to document the sensory experience created my these dances. Creating marks and textures that could be re-appropriated as collage textures to develop the visual aspect of my work. 

On my visit I was shown a photo-book, documenting The Dales Tour, an annual Morris dancing tour where several different teams from various traditions gather to celebrate the folk culture. It could be interesting to explore this idea of community and the variety of traditions together within my picture-book, perhaps as a last page to summarise the culture. 

Following on from this research, I intend now to study the 4 other Morris traditions discussed in my last transcript, and draw from reference images as a means of formulating a base for development.