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Roy Dommett Notes

Hankie dance

Roy Dommett was a Morris dancer for about fifty years and collector of dances (in addition to being an actual rocket scientist). He collected dances, he wrote up notes, he wrote articles about Morris dancing.

In 1997 we invited him over from England to teach an advancd Morris workshop, in Camp Campbell in the Santa Cruz hills, and when he came over he brought 1,500 pages of notes and left them with Randall to be distributed. He and Randall went out at 2:00am the morning before Roy left to go back to England, and they hit a Kinko’s to scan it all. One can imagine the ensuing merriment.

Randall has compiled them, separating them into five volumes divided by topic. These are volumes 6-10 because in 1986 Roy had given a previous set of notes to Tony Barrand, a professor at Boston University, and Tony published them as volumes 1-5.

Volume 6: Collected Cotswold Dances
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol6.pdf (77mb)

  • Collected Dances by Tradition
    1. Ascot
    2. Badby
    3. Bidford
    4. Brackley
    5. Brill
    6. Ducklington (Fleet)
    7. Ducklington Workshop
    8. Ducklington
    9. Eynsham
    10. Fieldtown
    11. Fleet
    12. Headington Quarry
    13. Innovative Ilmington
    14. Juniper Hill
    15. Lichfield
    16. Lichfield dances for Fleet
    17. Limpley Stoke
    18. North Leigh & Finstock
    19. Sherbourne
  • Three to Fives
  • Dances for Three
  • Dances for Four
  • Dances for Five & Nine
  • Dances at 3-5ish Workshop
  • Cotswold Morris
  • Skit Morris Dances as Seen on TV Shows and Festivals
  • Skits, Stunts & Inventions
  • Some Fun & Skit Dances

Volume 7: Border Morris Material
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol7.pdf (39mb)

  • Source Material for the Border Morris Tradition
    1. Introduction
    2. Historical
    3. Other Morris & Added Content
    4. The Collected Border Morris
    5. Traditional Dances
    6. Interpretations and Extensions
    7. Shopshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden Tupenny Dish
    8. Inventions
    9. Alton Border Morris
    10. Hawk Eagles Border Morris
    11. Red Stag’s Border Morris
    12. Tyler’s Men Border Morris
    13. Some Shopshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden Tunes
    14. Hawk Eagle Morris Men Border Workshop, Sidmouth 1996
  • Some Dances for a Border Morris Workshop
  • Simple Modern Border Dance Set for Sidmouth Workshop 1996
  • Off The Wall
  • Off The Mark
  • Kresala – 2 Dances

Volume 8: Other Morris Dances
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol8.pdf (64mb)

  • Garland Dance Notations for Church Crookham Workshop 1994
  • Garland Dance Notation Workshop Set
  • Garland and Clog Dances
  • Two Basque stick dances (Sahatsa)
  • Violet Alford Basque Material
  • El Baile Del Palo (Guam stick dance)
  • Isle of Man Dances
  • East Anglian Molly
  • Stave Dances
  • Stave Dances: Sidmouth Workshop 1996
  • Flaming Morris
  • Under the Greenwood Tree
  • Dances of the Knobs and Knockers Tradition
  • Some NW Dances

Volume 9: Articles About the Morris
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol9.pdf (140mb)

  • What you didn’t know about the morris
  • Beginners & Morris Basics Workshop
  • The Cotswold Morris Workshop
  • Do It Yourself by Douglas Kennedy
  • On playing for the Cotswold Morris
  • Tweaking Tradition: Cotsold Morris Workshop
  • Bacca Pipes Jigs Workshop by Simon Pipe
  • Broom Dance Workshops
  • Sport Injuries
  • The Source of Our Dances
  • A Deeper Look at Morris Topics
  • On the Early History of Morris
  • Influences on the Morris
  • New Directions
  • The Traditions Stylized
  • Adderbury Sing and Stick
  • Delivered Longborough Talk
  • Longborough Morris–Context of a Recovery
  • Characters and the Cotswold Morris
  • Roots of Clowning
  • On Clowning and the Morris
  • Black Face Minstrels
  • The Morris Dance in Wales
  • The Singing Game
  • Stick Games
  • Ministry of Silly Walks
  • The Princess Royal
  • The sponsored Whitsun Ale of the Late 20th Century
  • Robert Dover, Dr. William Brookes and All the Olympic Games
  • Playford and the Country Dance
  • Custom in Conflict
  • Whitsun in Oxfordshire in the 19th Century
  • Morris Dancing in the South Midlands
  • Continuing Researches into the South Midland

Volume 10a: Transparencies for Morris Lectures, Part I
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol10a.pdf (179mb)

  • Origins of the morris
  • Current Understandings of the Origins and Early History

Volume 10b: Transparencies for Morris Lectures, Part II
https://www.cayford.org/dommett/Dommett_vol10b.pdf (101mb)

  • Contrasting the Cotswold Traditions
  • Roots of the Border Morris
  • Influences on the Morris
  • Morris Costume