Miss Margaret Morris’ Merry Mermaids

“Everyone should live creatively. It is now recognised that the creative urge – other than sex – is manifest in varying degrees, not only in musicians, writers and painters, but in all human beings…. Creation in the widest sense must surely be adding to what already exists. If you contribute something to others and to yourself you are living creatively”

– Margaret Morris, Creation in Dance and Life

 

 

During the 1930s obsession with health and the ideal body, when Mary Bagot-Stack was organising her Women’s League of Health and Beauty and Gertrud Scholtz-Klink and Prunella Stack were two ideals of womanhood, the Margaret Morris Movement (MMM) flourished. Founded by British-born Margaret Morris (10 March 1891 – 29 February 1980), the MMM boasted outposts throughout the UK and France.

Below is a 1923 newsreel that shows a group of MMM students performing their dance moves on Harlech beach, in North Wales. Appearing under the title ‘Miss Margaret Morris’ Merry Mermaids’ the women and girls dance along the waters’ edge.

 

 

Margaret Morris Movement

In 1910, Morris met the writer John Galsworthy (14 August 1867 – 31 January 1933) who encouraged her to open her own school on London’s St Martin’s Lane. The pair enjoyed an affair whilst he was married to Ada Galsworthy. Her long-term partnership with the Scottish artist John Duncan Fergusson did not rule out other liaisons.

That same year she toured with her own company, the rather odd sounding Margaret Morris and her Dancing Children. In 1911 she was the choreographer and principal dancer for The Little Dream, a fantasy by Galsworthy, at Annie Horniman’s Gaiety Theatre, Manchester.  In 1912 she created the part of Guinevere Megan in Galsworthy’s The Pigeon at the Royal Theatre. That same year she had a season at The Royal Court Theatre, London where she performed such ballets as Callisto by Maurice Hewlett and The Little Dream by Galsworthy.

 

The Colours of Dance

In 1917 Morris started the first Summer School at Devon which has since been held annually to the present date except for the war years. In 1922 she started the first ‘Educational School’ in England to combine traditional educational subjects with educational training in dancing and acting. Fergusson became the art director of all her schools. Painting and design became an integral part of the students curriculum which already included acting, dance composition and improvisation, normal educational subjects and her system of Dance Notation.

Morris explained her mission:

“I first realised the absolute necessity of relating movement with form and colour when studying painting of the modern movement in Paris in 1913. From that time I incorporated it as one of the main studies in my school. In this connection I am deeply indebted to J D Ferguson, the painter, who for years has taught the painting design and sculpture in my school and who first made me realise the possibilities of theatrical work considered from the visual point of view, and the value of the study of form and colour as a means of education.”

 

 

The syllabus followed at her schools (as of 1925):

The Margaret Morris method of physical culture and dancing
Dance composition
Theory of movement: Breathing
Theory of practice of teaching
Painting, design and sculpture
Notation of movement
Property and mask making
Dressmaking
Music training
Class singing
Musical composition
Literature; study of words; writing of plays and poems; essays
Diction and acting
Lecturing and discussion
Stage management, including lighting
Production of play and ballets
General organisation and business management
Swimming
Ballroom dancing
The Margaret Morris Movement was chosen to represent Britain at the 1931 Dance Festival in Florence, Italy.

 

 

“…it is impossible to begin exercises too early –or continue them too late –for, if the exercises are scientifically worked out to meet the varied requirements for each age, with due regard to the relative strength or weakness of the pupils, only good can result.”

– Margaret Morris

 

 

In 1961, after the death of Fergusson, her Glasgow School was closed. Morris presented 14 of his paintings to the University of Stirling when it was founded in 1968. His work remains popular, and in 1992 a permanent gallery, The Fergusson Gallery, was founded in Perth to house it.Margaret Morris died in Glasgow on 29 February 1980, aged 89.