Get acquainted with Dusking, a new ritual to welcome the winter

“Just express yourself!” one woman implores as another responds, shaking bells. The camera pans out to reveal a group, ankle-deep in leaves, dancing wildly in a windy woodland. Other clips reveal sombre solo dances in dwindling sunlight, accompanied by the autumnal rustle of foil blankets; hooded ravers clasping scythes and berried branches; a montage of globally distributed solo dancers, capering on sands in Mexico and Japan, the verges of the south English coast and inner-city parks. Costumes range from the funereal, the morris-inspired and the downright bizarre, with much headgear. The dancing is morris, morris-adjacent and idiosyncratic. All are enthusiastic. The reason? Dusking.

Dusking first appeared in October 2023, the brainchild of artist-researcher Lucy Wright, by way of her ‘Hedge Morris’ initiative and social media conversations. Following a move to a different part of the country and being unable to participate in the morris dancing side (a group or team of dancers) she had loved, she developed Hedge Morris, a solo blueprint for dancers (or would-be dancers) without a side, whether that be for logistical reasons, like Lucy, or disability, chronic illness or other barriers which otherwise make dancing with a side an impossibility.

Lucy sought a cultural zenith where dancers could be brought together to celebrate their fledgling success. She stumbled across a Facebook conversation in which dancers were wondering why the sun was danced up on May 1, to welcome in the summer, but not danced down ahead of winter.

“Peter Austin, the bagman of the Morris Ring, referred to dancing the sun down as ‘Dusking.’ Right away, I thought that’s really evocative, and something Hedge Morris dancers, us misfits, can get behind, something separate from the established tradition,” says Lucy.

It was an attractive proposition from a personal perspective, too. “I don’t love winter, I find it bleak, so I wondered how I could reconcile my feelings towards the gloomier part of the year,” she adds.

Dusking also provided an opportunity to develop her practice. “When taking your place in a tradition, there’s a way of doing things, but Dusking allowed me to think differently: what if I dress in this way, or use sacks instead of handkerchiefs?” The result is a dance that looks significantly different. “Cotswold [morris] is all about height and elegance. But using these great big coffee sacks made of burlap is like beating a fire out with a blanket. It seems appropriate for dancing the sun down.”

Esther Ferry-Kennington, morris dancer and Creative Development Director of Horse and Bamboo, an arts company specialising in folk tradition, invited Lucy to Rossendale for this year’s iteration of Dusking. Yarn artist Helen Davies, in residence at Horse and Bamboo, got to work on eye-catching costumes, and a small group made their way to the local park for 4.33pm on 31 October.

“It was bonkers, absolutely chaotic, but also felt important to me personally,” Esther says. “Quite often, arts organisations are focused on spectacle rather than ritual, but it is ritual which is owned and shared by people,” she says. "I love Lucy’s work and her viewpoint on folk; it’s less about a specific aesthetic of what folk is. I’m also very encouraging of new traditions; traditions fall by the wayside all the time and we need new ones."

+ Dusking, a new film from Lucy Wright, is out soon. A preview of the film can be seen at bit.ly/duskingtrailer