This video from 2000 shows both the dance and the play performed, by the latest group to step into the White Boys shoes. Probably Bock Yuan Fannee.
Thanks go to Culture Vannin and to Colin Messer, who wrote an excellent researched history of all that we know about the dance, originally published in “Rattle Up My Boys” in 2005, and gave us permission to reproduce it here.
The White Boys’ Dance
Sometimes known as:
The Manx Sword Dance
Introduction
In the 19th Century in the Isle of Man traditional dancing was widely practised. By the start of the 20th century the negative influence on all things Manx by the ruling Stanley family, Victorian dominance of social and commercial interests and strict Methodism had resulted in the virtual extinction of Manx traditional dance [7]. From a few remaining memories the Manx dances of today were revived or perhaps restored [9] and one of them, The White Boys’ Dance, is of particular interest. We may never know exactly how the sword dance came into existence and exactly why it has some of its characteristic features, but this article aims to set out what is known as clearly as possible.
The 1976 White Boys
In 1976 a new White Boys side revived and performed their Mummers play and sword dance [1]. The revival team consisted of Colin Jerry, Ross Trench-Jellico, David Fisher, Ian Coulson, Stuart Bennett, Bob Carswell, George Broderick, and Phil Gorry. In 1983 the White Boys gave their last performance; two Manx display teams maintain the play and dance: Bock Yuan Fannee (Shank’s Pony) and Perree Bane (Jacket of White), and the dance has been performed on many occasions over the last couple of decades by school groups.
In the rest of the British Isles, North British (and now Southern Star) currently perform the dance
The White Boys, who were not a formal group but an ad hoc band of performers, performed their Mummers play in white overalls decorated with ribbons and the high crenellated / castellated or pointed hats that make excellent Mumming kit. At the end of the play, and still wearing the high hats, they perform the sword dance, display the lock, then using the lock as a chair carry off the doctor.
Manx Dance Revival
Manx folklorists Dr John Clague, Deemster Gill and Speaker A.W.Moore collected certain aspects of Manx culture in the 1890s. They noted a number of dance-airs (including “Creg Willy Syl” – Willy Sylvester’s Rock that is used for the sword dance) and disregarded completely the actual dances that went with them.
In 1928 when the English Folk Dance Society (EFDS) arranged a vacation Easter School in Douglas, Manx dancing was all but extinct. Indeed, it was a common belief that no Manx dances existed. Mona Douglas was due to give a lecture to the school about Manx folklore and wanted to show what some of these dances might have looked like.
At this point a pivotal meeting took place with Philip Leighton Stowell, a teacher at the Albert Road School, Ramsey. The school taught English country dancing and had put a Morris team from the school into ‘Guild’ competitions. Douglas and Leighton Stowell worked out the actual movements of the Manx dances with Leighton Stowell’s young dancers.
At this time, Douglas reports of the White Boys: “I have been told that this play formally ended with a dance, but have not been able to get a clear description of the latter. It appears to have been a kind of circular reel, however.” [4]
It was this lecture given in 1929 that marked the beginning of the Manx dance revival [5]. The enthusiasm shown by the EFDS vacation school for the Manx dances and the continuing encouragement from EFDS over succeeding years persuaded Douglas and Leighton Stowell to continue their reconstruction.
The Sword Dance
In the standard books on Manx folklore, Moore (1891) [13] and Paton (1939) [14] for example, there is no mention of a dance, just the play. But both of these descriptions are copied from William Harrison’s description of one performance he saw at his house in 1845. [12]
The earliest reference was quoted by the White Boys themselves, who referred to an article from The Manx Sun [2] of 1832; but this article is a transcript of the play, there is no mention of a dance. That there is evidence of a dance is given by I.M. Killip, who wrote in 1976 that “Mr Leighton Stowell of Castletown who has done more than anyone else to rescue the White Boys from oblivion found evidence of a sword dance at the conclusion of the Manx Mummers’ play” [3]. Thus far I have neither seen this evidence nor have been able to determine its source, and sadly Killip does not provide a reference.
In 1937 Douglas noted the sword dance as “Completed and restored to use”. At this time 14 dances including The White Boys’ Mummers Play and Dance were restored and five more noted but incomplete. Douglas also writes of “…the splendid work done by Mr P.L. Stowell and his team of junior dancers at the Ramsey Elementary School”. Of the sword dance Douglas notes “Different version in several respects from the English ones known to me, but probably a variant of them. There is no ‘lock’ but the swords are formed into a woven cross-seat upon which the ‘Doctor’ sits. The seat is then raised shoulder high and the ‘Doctor’ carried of by the dancers. Six men and the Doctor are required.” [6]
So there is by that time a sword dance with no lock that is a characteristic of all linked ring sword dances in the British Isles, and with hoisting that is characteristic of continental sword dances.
By 1941 another feature has been added to the performance. “…though both in that (the Dirk Dance) and in the White Boys’ Dance some of the steps danced over and around the dirk or the crossed sword on the ground are slightly reminiscent of the Scottish Sword Dance.” and again Leighton Stowell’s involvement is commented upon “…working out the actual movements with Mr P.L. Stowell’s young dancers.” [5]
There are no further reports on the sword dance until the 1976 revival.
Notation
There are two Manx dance publications that include entries for the White Boys’. The first, “The Leighton Stowell Book of Manx Dances” [8] contains the copyrighted dances composed by Leighton Stowell. It describes St George’s Sword Dance performed as part of the Mummers play that uses Manx steps to dance over and around swords crossed in the same way that swords are crossed in the Highland Sword Dance. The second is “Rinkaghyn Vannin” [7] – dances of Mann published by Colin Jerry one of the 1976 revival team that contains the Manx dances not copyrighted by LS, and includes the Manx sword dance.
Douglas notes in the Leighton Stowell Book: “Leighton Stowell was a fine teacher and a showman and inclined to elaborate on traditional forms. The recorded Manx dances were limited in number, so Leighton Stowell started to compose new dances”
Rinkaghyn Vannin’s notation includes a lock and carrying off the Doctor who sits on the swords. It is this notation with a few clarifications that Ivor Allsop includes in Longsword Dances [11]. In this notation the set lines up in two files of three, like the start of a Morris dance and the numbering is for a Morris set, i.e. in pairs, rather than circular around the set. Bearing in mind Leighton Stowell’s Morris background, this is not surprising.
See the White Boys Dance drawings that show the Doctor being carried off at shoulder height. [10], this is corroborated by a photo in the archive of the Manx Museum, undated but possibly from the 30s which shows swords at above shoulder height and the Doctor holding nobody but waving his hat in the air. (Addendum, by Judith Proctor – probably this photo) Killip, in the article cited above, is ambiguous; it just refers to the Doctor being carried off on the lock but it comments on the need for the Doctor to be light. The version of the dance in “Rinkaghyn Vannin” contradicts this to some extent and states that the Doctor is carried at shoulder height supporting himself on the shoulders of dancers number 1 & 2.
An example of contemporary performance is by Perree Bane. Instead of a Doctor there is “Lal Vane”, a white spirit horse worn by a child, who weaves in and out of the dancers and is carried off in triumph on the lock.
Style
The dance uses the Manx slip step, i.e. stepR-stepL-stepR-hop bringing the left foot over and back to start stepL etc. This step is characteristic of Manx dances. If creating a dance in the Manx idiom, and one that strove to be distinct from its Irish, English and Scots neighbours then incorporating the Manx slip step is one area of clear blue water.
Mumming
Devil Doubt – The Mummers play has a character Devil Doubt who is ubiquitous in Lancashire. If there is a link between play and dance then perhaps we should look to Lancashire for the origins of the dance.
A slender link to the Southwest of England and Cornwall is given for the Mummers play.
White Boys – The only other evidence of White Boys is in Galloway where the White Boys of Yule or Yule Boys perform a Mummers play.The Irish Whiteboys – A byway is the existence of Whiteboys (rather that White Boys) in the south of Ireland from 1760 to 1845. The original Whiteboys were a peasant “secret society” that sought to prevent enclosures and redress other popular grievances. Though there is no evidence of sword dancing, the link between peasant rebels and “calendar custom” type groups might at first seem odd but it was actually deep and fundamental. In both Ireland and Britain such groups tended to be drawn from the same section of the population (young working class males) and shared the same methods of organisation, modus operandi etc. – disguising in women’s clothes or black faces, night visiting, informal peer group structures, leadership by “Captain nickname” etc. …[2]
This line of enquiry adds little to our knowledge of the White Boys in the Isle of Man, and as there is no evidence of sword dancing in Ireland I have not followed it further.
Conclusions
The Manx sword dance was probably primarily written by Philip Leighton Stowell in the 1930s. It seems unlikely that he was the sole author however and he did not copyright the dance.
The dance shares characteristics of other Manx dances and also Morris and Sword found outside the Isle of Man. These characteristics probably reflect Philip Leighton Stowell and Mona Douglas’s desire to create a distinctive Manx sword dance and also Philip Leighton Stowell’s experience of Cotswold Morris. The dance is short and lacks the complexity of the other sword dances. Making and displaying the lock was added later perhaps as a result of influences from other sword traditions.
Another interesting point for those interested in European sword traditions is that Bob Carswell, who played the doctor in the revival team, stood on the lock as he was carried off, so perhaps hoisting isn’t so alien to the British Isles.
References
[1] Isle of Man Examiner (1998). “White Boys take to the streets of Peel”, (6th January 1998)
[2] The Manx Sun (1832). “A Christmas Drama as performed by the White Boys”, (Tuesday 10th January 1832)
[3] Killip, I. M. (1976). “The White Boys and the Mollag Band.” Journal of the Manx Museum, Vol VII, No 88, 201-205
[4] Douglas, Mona (1928). “Ceremonial Folk-Song, Mumming and Dance in the Isle of Man”. Journal of the English Folk Dance Society, 2nd series, No 2, 17-20
[5] Douglas, Mona (1941). “The Traditional Dances of Mann”. Journal of the Manx Museum, Vol V, No 64, 3-7
[6] Douglas, Mona. “Manx Folk Dances: Their Notation and Revival” Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, III(2), 1937, 110-116.
[7] Sleih Gyn Thie. “Rinkaghyn Vannin”, privately published Pamphlet, Norris Modern Press, printed by Keyspools (I.O.M.) Ltd., no date [copy in Morris Ring Archive]
[8] The Leighton Stowell Book of Manx Dances (1981). No Place, Manx Folk Dance Society.
[9] Miller, Stephen (1994). “Manx Folk-Song, Folk Dance, Folklore. Collected Writings of Mona Douglas” Chiollagh Books, Isle of Mann
[10] Austwick, Eric. Drawings of Manx Folk Dances studied from life, in The Traditional Dances of Mann [5].
[11] Allsop & Barrand (1996). “Longsword Dances”, Northern Harmony, 289-298
[12] Harrison, William (1869). “The White Boys.” The Manx Society, Vol 16 “Mona Miscellany“, 116-171.
[13] Moore, A. W. (1891). “The Folk-lore of the Isle of Man”. Douglas & London, David and Son & David Nutt.
[14] Paton, C. I. (1939). “Manx Calendar Customs”. London: Glaisher, Folk-Lore Society Publication(Vol. Cx), 1939My thanks to Dr Fenella Bazin (Research Fellow, Centre for Manx Studies), Dr Eddie Cass, Dr Paul Roberts, Andrew Kennedy, Joan Cowell (Secretary of the Manx Folk Dance Society) for numerous emails letters and conversations, and for gently disabusing me of many preconceptions.
Addendum
by Judith Proctor – Some of the articles cited above can now be found online in “Restoring to use our almost-forgotten dances”: The collection and revival of Manx folk song and dance – a collection of the writings of Mona Douglas. Edited by Stephen Miller.
A photo of the 1976 team carrying off the Doctor can be seen near the bottom of this page.
The text and music from “Rinkaghyn Vannin” are here on the Culture Vannin website and also here.