The Grenoside Traditional Sword Dancers

The Grenoside Traditional Sword Dancers

DVD. Ovington: Garland Films GAR026, 2009. �11.50. <www.garlandfilms.co.uk>

Let me commit myself at the start by saying that the film of the Grenoside dancers performing at Buxton in 1927 is simply priceless: a delight to watch in itself and essential viewing for anyone interested in or pretending to a knowledge of traditional dancing and music in England. Its shades of faded grey provide a vision of a world that can now only be imagined. The absence of a soundtrack does not detract from an appreciation of the dancing, which silently confirms Imogen Hoist's famous adage that 'dancing is music made visible'. And while the proceedings are located geographically, culturally, and historically by the voice of Lewis Wroe, whose recorded reminiscences - including a rendition of the nomine (which, as he says, the EFDSS calls a 'calling-on song') - are used as a commentary, the absence of music blurs the visual distinction between the longsword dance and rapper dancing.

The 1927 performance is part of the first, archival half of the cinematic element of this DVD. It also contains some atmospheric photographs, another stunning pre-war film of the dance, and some post-war performances, once again silent but with the addition of a soundtrack of Lewis Wroe, not only reminiscing but playing the tunes for the dance - again a complete delight - presumably on the flutina, an early form of button accordion which he occasionally played for the dance and which was also played by a number of other musicians at Grenoside. This does not seem to be stated anywhere, nor does there seem to be a reference to the source of the recordings, but they are elsewhere dated 1959. They may be the recordings made in that year that Peter Kennedy released on Folktrax FTX-2 12, but that also included 'Soldier's Joy', which does not feature here. A convincing attempt has been made to synchronize Wroe's playing with the films, if you take the presence of fiddlers Walter Fleetwood and Ray Ellison (in different films) in your stride!

The second half of the cinematic element features a film of a performance by the modern team, designed, it seems, to record the dance and its figures for posterity. The difference between this film and the 1 927 film is telling. The delivery of the nomine is now declamatory where Wroe's was almost introspective (though not a public performance, of course), and the restrained exuberance of the dance and dancers in 1927 has given way to solemnity - broken, it's true, by broad mirth on the faces of the dancers when real time fleetingly invades their reverence. In fact, it is the inspired fiddling of Ray Ellison on this occasion that seems to provide the strongest link with an older way of doing things (he did, after all, acquire the tunes and that style from Walter Fleetwood - are there no recordings of him?).

But these are different times and we are different people, encumbered with a different set of preoccupations. This is underlined, in a facile way, by the modern cameraman's obsession with the faces of the dancers, the camera dwelling on them repeatedly while we are left to sense the dance. In contrast, one of the delights of the pre-war films is the extrovert and idiosyncratic stepping of each of the dancers, which the cameraman of the day understandably homes in on. These were men who obviously brought their own independent and considerable stepping skills to the dance in a way that is now impossible.

As the packaging says, the DVD element can be played on any domestic DVD player (or computer). The other element on the disc is the DVD-ROM section, which contains an extraordinary volume and variety of documentation and information. Anything bearing on or connected with the Grenoside dance seems to have been included: not so much research per se as research materials. This information is well presented, being separated into such areas as Teams, Dance, Music and Song, and Costume, with other areas devoted to Photographs, Films, Archive, and Biographies. The one thing I missed was any sort of overview of the information as a whole. And there doesn't seem to be a search facility. The note on the box also warns that the disc is designed to run on the Firefox web browser, and this might confuse those who have always been content with the Internet Explorer embedded in Windows. But Firefox is easily downloaded at no cost, though this isn't actually stated.

Any informed reader of this journal should be on intimate terms with this DVD. But in this day and age can't the people at Garland make the packaging for their DVDs a bit more appealing?

[Author Affiliation]

PHILIP HEATH-COLEMAN

Halstead