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40 years is a long time for a community organisation to run, but that doesn’t have to mean you have to get stuck in tradition.
Offcumduns is a vibrant young Border Morris Dancing group based in St. Nicholas-at-Wade. In 2023, they will be celebrating their 40th year but with 80% of the members not even born when the group started up in 1983, what’s the secret to their longevity?
Change, and inclusivity.
The word “Offcumdun” is a phrase from the North West of England, meaning a person who is out of his or her usual place; they have “come from off”. Morris Dancing groups are known as ‘Sides’. Offcumduns have always been based in the South-East, but until 2016 members followed a very traditional Morris Dancing style known as North-West. In this tradition, dancers wear clogs and can be seen moving slowly in strict formations, carrying garlands or short sticks with bells on the end.
With an ageing member population and an all-but-certain prognosis of members developing some clog-related ailment, a decision grew to change styles and adopt the Border tradition.
Offcumduns ditched the clogs and donned Tatters – waistcoats or jackets decorated with ribbons and strips of fabric. The Border dance style is much more fluid and dynamic, with dancers moving at speed, tracing elaborate shapes and patterns around each other. You can recognise the style by listening, thanks to the heavy drum beats and whooping.
Some things have not changed, though. You can still recognise them in their colours of bottle green, black, and white. However, the inclusivity of Offcumduns is what sets them apart.
Where many Morris Sides take pride in rigorous adherence to traditions on gender and uniformity, Offcumduns take strength by welcoming diversity. Every member is encouraged to put their own stamp on the Side, from the logo, to the dances, to whatever variation on the kit they feel like wearing that day. Fun and laughter are more than ideals, they are policy. Friends and couples dance and play alongside families, one of which now sees its third-generation dancing as an Offcumdun.
Six years later, the new tradition is holding strong. The Side continues to attract new members and have developed their very own Festival of Dance, which will run for the third year in May. In 2019, their newfound success was recognised when they won the Green Man shield at Rochester Sweeps Festival.
The Side have suffered some tragic losses in recent years with the deaths of musicians Eddie and Aaron, though this has only strengthened their resolve to keep the untraditional traditions of Offcumduns alive, to maintain their legacies, and to push the Side on to bigger, brighter things.
This year has already seen them help celebrate the turning on of the Christmas lights at the Margate Christmas Fair. Later on in the year you will see them join the Margate Carnival. An invitation from the prestigious Chippenham Folk Festival is on the table, and you can certainly catch them at Broadstairs Folk Week and Sandwich Folk & Ale.