Margaret Morris: Inspirations - The Waterfront Hall
Friday 28th October
7:30pm
£10 including a glass of wine / soft drink
Tickets available by emailing or at the door
Heroica Theatre Company presents a rehearsed reading of Anna Carlisle’s new play Margaret Morris: Inspirations
The cast featrures actors Tim Hardy, Alexandra Mathie and Alison Skilbeck, and tickets will include a glass of wine or soft drink
Some background on Margaret Morris:
Margaret Morris founded her famous movement method – MMM – 112 years ago: in 1910 at the age of 19 – with its origins in the six key classical Greek poses. MMM evolved – throughout the decades of the early twentieth century and over the period of two World Wars – into a comprehensive recreational, therapeutic, athletic and creative system of movement and exercise for all ages.
Margaret Morris’ early start in the world of professional dance was facilitated by her encounter with Raymond Duncan (brother of Isadora) and her connection with the novelist and playwright John Galsworthy. Subsequently, Margaret established annual MMM summer schools in both Britain and the south of France, set up a series of permanent schools in London, Paris and key British cities for the teaching of dance, music and painting, and implemented a significant teacher-training programme – all with the support, encouragement and artistic input from her life partner the Scottish ‘Colourist’ painter J D Fergusson.
Morris’ work outside her own schools encompassed demonstrating in hospitals and rehabilitation centres; instructing athletes and military trainees; giving mobility to disabled children; and offering exercise regimes to neo-natal and post-maternity women. Although the intervention of the second World War led to the closure of most of her schools, her annual summer schools continued with barely a year missed – right up to 2019 – and, post-War, she established the Celtic Ballet Company (and later the Scottish National Ballet) which toured to the US and Europe.
Margaret Morris’ training of dance and movement teachers continues to this day, with the Margaret Morris Movement International continuing to be a vital organisation, drawing together teachers and participants of all ages and from a wide range of countries, meeting annually at the MMMI summer school in the south of England.
Margaret Morris’ chief legacy was a system of movement practicable and achievable by people of all ages and most abilities. She left us with an enjoyable way of exploring and building trust in our body’s potential and the poetry of its movements, to enhance the quality of our daily lives and extend our capacities into older age.
Margaret’s life story combines ambition, passion, conflict and gigantic personal achievement. Her ‘suffragette’ instincts, cultivated in her girlhood by her mother, stood her in fine stead. She was a feisty, formidable and flamboyant character who gave scant attention to any contemporary obstacles to her march through life. On the career and collaborative levels, she was a force to be reckoned with. On matters of the heart, she was convention-breaking. On the matter of dance and movement, she was emphatic: that the beauty of glowing good health and perfect co-ordination could be experienced by everyone, despite their different abilities.