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| Britannia Coconut Dancers |
by Brian Bamford
BELOW is a news report this month by Stuart Pike , the
Rossendale Free Press Deputy Editor, which claims
that the public up Bacup and beyond, are backing
the rights of the Britannia Coconut Dancers* to
continue to black-up to do their traditional clog dancing.
Meanwhile Northern Voices has spoken to Gavin McNulty
for the Britannia coconutters and he says that the motion for
them to wash their faces has come from 'down South'
* The Britannia Coco-nut Dancers or Nutters are a troupe of Lancastrian clog dancers who perform every Easter in Bacup, dancing 7 miles (11 km) across the town.[1] There are eight dancers and a whipper-in, who controls the proceedings.[2]
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In an e-mail Derek Pattison asks:
'After toppling statues, the
woke / trendy left, have now got the Rossendale coconut dancers in their
cross hairs. Should the Nutters remove their black face paint which they
say has no racial connotations but is connected with the mining
industry and is
a Lancashire tradition. Northern Voices writers, Brian Bamford and Chris
Draper, have fond memories of the anarchist Julian Pilling who was a
celebrated and legendary Lancashire Nutter. What do they think?'
Chris Draper replies:
'Definitely not! The whole "Nutter" tradition is demonstrably laced
with irreverent humour and irony - it is not an unwarranted celebration
of dominance, celebrity, exploitation and savagery as exemplified by the
memorialisation of Colston, Hawkins, Churchill,
Gladstone et al. It is an eccentric historical anachronism that reminds
all true Northerners of those glory days when off-duty, unwashed miners
laboured in the vast Rossendale Coconut Plantations.'
Row over use of face paint for Britannia Coconut Dancers routines
The [Irwell] Valley public are firmly behind the Britannia Coconut Dancers in a row over the use of face paint, the group has said.
The
popular dance troupe say they are among folk dancing groups affected by
a potential ban on the use of full-face skin tone makeup - in the light
of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The
Coconutters, which date back to the mid-19th century, say their
full-face black makeup has no racial connotations and reflects the
origins of the dance in the mining community.
Three Morris
[Dancer] organisations issued a joint statement this week calling on the use of
full-face black or skin tone makeup to be eliminated by member groups.
A
motion will be put forward to the AGM in September moving that the
Morris Federation should not renew membership for teams that do not
comply.
Group secretary Gavin McNulty told LancsLive they are
working with their Morris governing organisation, but said if they were
unable to agree
“a compromise” the Nutters would be forced to go
“on our
own”.
He
said:
“There’s been a lot of strong support for the team to carry on as
it is. It’s infuriating that people think they don’t like something or
don’t agree with it and they want to change it.
“It’s a tradition
that’s been going and will be kept going. We move forward how we think
is best. Teams like ourselves have been there for hundreds of years. Our
tradition is going to remain.”
He said they would know more once they have been able to convene a meeting - probably next month.
The
Coconutters website states:
“The dances the team perform are ‘folk
dances’ and the custom of blackened faces are thought to reflect a pagan
tradition as a disguise from the evil spirits / and part of the mining
connections.”
The Morris Dancer's Federation statement said:
“While no
morris dancer wants to cause offence, we must recognise that full-face
black or other skin tone makeup is a practice that has the potential to
cause deep hurt.
“Morris is a living tradition and it is right that it has always adapted and evolved to reflect society.
"We
want people from all races and backgrounds to share in this pride and
not be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable by any element of a
performance.”
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