‘Britannia Coconut Dancers’ removed from dancing organisation for refusing to refrain from blacking up their faces during performances

A troupe of clog dancers called The Britannia Coconut Dancers that are known as the ‘Coco-nutters’ have been removed from the national morris dancing organisation for refusing to refrain from blacking up their faces during performances. 

The group’s critics have accused them of being racist and claimed their painted faces could cause what has been described as ‘deep hurt’ to black people. However, members of the group have insisted that their routine is in line with a tradition that dates back for more than a century and is linked to their area’s coal-mining history. .

On Easter Saturday the group black up and dance behind a brass band on a seven-mile route marking the boundaries of Bacup in Lancashire. The group insists that the black facing harks back to the time local miners danced as they emerged from the pits with their faces blackened by coal dust and that the tradition is not connected with ‘ethnicity nor any form of racial prejudice’.

However, the Joint Morris Organisation (JMO) which represents the country’s 800 dancing ‘sides’, have decided that its members must stop blacking up in response to the Black Lives Matter campaign. A statement by the organisation said that ‘full face black or other skin tone make-up is a practice that has the potential to cause deep hurt’.

 The JMO have said that any groups that continued to black up would no longer be invited to take part in events. 

The group have expressed their sadness at the decision. The group’s statement said: ‘Our age-old tradition is embedded in the hearts and souls of the people of Bacup, Rossendale and overseas. We have discussed the use of black face make-up in great detail and have come to a unanimous decision that this will continue to be part of our unique mining tradition’. 

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