"Nibs" Matthews; folk dancer & director of English Folk Dance & Song Scoiety
Hyfler/Rosner
March 18, 2006, Saturday
Sidney Alfred "Nibs" Matthews, MBE, TD, folk dancer and
former director of the English Folk Dance and Song Society,
was born on November 19, 1920. He died on March 3, 2006,
aged 85.
Dancer and teacher who played a leading part in the English
folk revival
NIBS MATTEWS joined the English Folk Dance and Song Society
at a time when the whole nature of the folk revival was in
the process of radical change. Simple dances to strong
lively music, learnt at dances rather than classes, were
bringing in a much larger public. When, in 1951, a
photograph of the Queen (then Princess Elizabeth) and the
Duke of Edinburgh square dancing in Canada appeared in the
national press, everyone wanted what the society had to
offer.
Matthews became first a popular local "caller" and then
nationally known as "caller" for the BBC's radio and later
television programmes from Bristol, based on English and
American folk dance and song.
He worked to establish a summer festival in Sidmouth, which
was to grow into the enormously successful international
festival, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2004.
To his great pleasure Matthews was elected squire of the
national association of morris clubs, the Morris Ring, in
1960; and in 1961, when Douglas Kennedy retired, Matthews
was appointed first national adviser on folk dance, then the
society's artistic director and finally, in 1975, its
director. These were interesting rather than easy times for
the folk revival and Matthews's experience and authority
provided a welcome stability.
Nibs Matthews was born Sidney Alfred Matthews in Hackney in
1920. He grew up in Bishop's Stortford, where his mother was
a school cook and his father a painter and decorator. All
his life he was known by his nickname of Nibs. At school he
was thought of as a bright lad and sang in the church choir
in a strong treble good enough to perform solos.
When choir practice at Holy Trinity Church ended, the
organist would go next door to the church hall to play for
Miss Frere's folk dance class. As small boys might, the
choir amused themselves by throwing stones at the church
hall door.
One night Matthews was caught and dragged into the hall -and
his whole life was to change. Miss Frere suggested that the
naughty 12-year-old sit quietly and watch the dancing. If he
liked what he saw he could come back next week and join in.
In a clean shirt and with his hair slicked down with water,
he did.
Beryl Frere soon recognised his talent as a dancer and
Matthews realised that it was, like singing in the choir,
something else he was good at. Frere, the wealthy daughter
of the big house, "took Nibs on".
By the time Matthews was 14 he was dancing a solo morris
dance at the English Folk Dance and Song Society's annual
festival at the Royal Albert Hall, and was thus to meet the
second great influential figure in his life, Douglas
Kennedy, Cecil Sharp's successor as director of the society.
Matthews left school and worked for a while laying lino for
two of his uncles but at 16 joined the staff of the
International Tea Company Stores as an apprentice at £ 1 a
week.
By now, still under the guidance of Frere, he was attending
the society's vacation schools and dancing with the
prestigious headquarters morris team that had been first
established by Cecil Sharp before the First World War.
Nevertheless, he might have stayed in the grocery trade if
it had not been for the outbreak of war. Aged 18 he had
joined the Territorial Army, was called up and, thanks to
his TA experience, became Sergeant Matthews. Once more
encouraged by Frere, he applied for and received a
commission. When war ended Matthews returned to civilian
life and the International Tea Company Stores. It was then
that Douglas intervened and suggested that Matthews should
join the soon to be expanded staff of the English Folk Dance
and Song Society.
Matthews agreed and was sent to train in the West Country. A
young lady, Jean Forsyth, was appointed to show Matthews the
ropes. Working first as a teacher in Cornwall, which he
adored, he moved to Cheltenham in 1950, where he married
Jean, and became responsible for the work of the society in
the West Midlands.
Matthews became vice-chairman of the movement and dance
division of the Central Council for Physical Recreation, for
which he was appointed MBE. But it was as a dancer and a
teacher that Matthews will be best remembered; having learnt
from masters, his morris was classical and his teaching
clear and authoritative.
He retired in 1985 and lost Jean to a stroke in 1994.
Illness that made it harder for him to walk brought an end
to his dancing. When he became frail his greatest pleasure
was to visit, with a little help, the Whit Monday morris
dancing at Bampton and Headington, where the morris is
probably at its finest -although he spent as much time
reliving memories with old mates as he did in watching the
dancing.