Margaret Morris was a pioneer of modern dance, who, in 1910, created a comprehensive modern dance and movement therapy system that continues to be taught and enjoyed around the world today. Margaret’s dance method, called Margaret Morris Movement (MMM) strives to pursue teaching and training, which combines music, sense of rhythm, coordination, exercise and creative movement for all ages.
Born in London in 1891, Margaret Morris began to develop her own natural dance technique at the age of 12, including the Greek positions of opposition that became the framework of her dance system. Over the years, her technique, including painting and music, evolved and developed into an educational system with the arts at its core. Her schools, in United Kingdom and abroad, taught a full-time syllabus and trained teachers in her method.
A woman ahead of her times, Margaret realized the potential benefit of dance as she saw improvements in her dancers’ posture and general health. As a physiotherapist and dancer, she also developed a dance-based exercise system for nursing homes. However, she did not limit herself to rehabilitation, but also worked with athletes.
In 1940, Margaret Morris founded the Celtic Ballet Company, which toured in Britain and continental Europe, and invited to prestigious dance festivals. The company ceased its operations in 1961. While there is no longer a professional company performing MMM today, teachers continue to teach her dance technique and choreographies to encourage the love of dance and movement for health benefits, personal satisfaction and performance.
Margaret Morris appointed Jim Hastie in 1980 to be her successor and to continue the work of expanding her system of dance and movement, known as Margaret Morris Movement (MMM). Jim Hastie, well known in fields of theatre, dance and performance, spent the next three decades developing and expanding MMM. Jim is sadly missed by teachers and students from the Margaret Morris Movement, the Scottish light entertainments scene as well as former dancers from Scottish Ballet and Scottish Opera.
In 2010, MMM Centenary celebrations marked the anniversary of the founding of Margaret Morris’s first school in London in 1910. The year 2010 also saw the gifting of the Margaret Morris Archive to Perth and Kinross Council. This wonderful collection consists of over 20,000 items including works of art, programmes, letters, photographs, costumes and diaries. The collection is housed within the J D Fergusson Gallery in Perth, which already hosts the large collection of paintings, drawings and other archive materials.
To this day, the International Summer School is still offered in the United Kingdom, where new teachers are being trained, in addition to workshops held in Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, France and Australia. At the last count, there were 325 registered teachers of MMM internationally and nearly ½ million annual attendances at classes in many parts of the world.
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Margaret Morris Method of Exercise and Dance (Canada)
Corporation No. 262133-9