morris people

Summer wouldn't be summer without a fete and a fete wouldn't be a fete without morris dancing. We love this video for Four Tet by Dougal Wilson (he's quite good at pop videos, you may have seen some of his stuff before) featuring a whole host of morris dancing groups.

Do morris dancers come in groups actually? Tribes? Congregations?. For a bit more on morris dancing have a look here.

Comments

[Catherine Cooper]

A group of morris men is called a 'side'. The head of the morris side is called the Squire, and the treasurer/secratary is the Bagman.

[Maria]

Hah! Morris MEN?? What about the women morris dancers out here? (OK, there were some women on the video, but they were clog dancing, nor morris dancing...).
But really, I'm glad to see that you're including morris dancing in your village fete. Hope you're planning on having a few women's sides there too??

[Lucy]

The information site you've linked to is for The Morris Ring - which is for men only and they are VERY strict on this. The Federation probably has a more rounded view of morris dancing. I'm a 26 year old clogger, it's a great hobbie to get into - more of you should try it!

[Nina]

Haha, my old maths teacher was a morris dancer in his spare time... we mocked him for it, even though we all secretly wished we cud do it ourselves...haha x

[Anonymous]

Hey! What happened to the great and marvelous and free Fruitstock 2007? You've turned it into a Fete? And you're charging £5 for tickets!!? uff, that's such a shame. you're losing the spirit of fruitstock.

[Kath]

The Maoris have the Haka, and we have the Morris Dance. What does that say about our respective national identities?

Love the idea of your village fete. I live too far away to get there :-( but maybe I'll make one of the roadshows.

[Karen]

I'm a female morris dancer & if you want to find a female or mixed side then try the morris dancer's webring or the morris federation.

[Annie Haz]

Who was Morris? Why did he dance? How did he persuade his mates to join in? These questions could keep you awake at night, or then again.....!

[Nick]

Love the Morris, there are 3 organisations though, Open Morris is the most flexible.
The collective noun for a collections of sides depends on the organisation they are part of, for Open Morris it is a Mayhem - as in a Mayhem of Morris, for Federation it is a Myriad and for Ring sides it is Miserable! Exceptions to this are any gathering of all Cotswold sides, (hanky wavers) known as a Pansy, or a collection of Border only, (mostly sticks wavers - but could be anything with Border) in which case its a Miracle - as in "it's a miracle that more than 2 of these sides made it to the same place at the same time!"

[ted at innocent]

Hi Anonymous.

We want to try and raise even more money for charity this year so are selling tickets for a small price of £5 (2.50 for kids/ really little ones go free) for which you get a whole day of summer fun in the park, lots of smoothies to sample and some great music plus lots more besides. Absolutely all of the profits from ticket sales go to our 3 charities; The Samaritans, Friends of the Earth and WellChild. We think it's a pretty good deal for the price of a posh sandwich these days.

Fruitstock had been getting bigger and bigger every year but actually got a bit too big and busy last year, so we thought we'd bring things back to basics and concentrate on all of the natural, sunshiney bits that we liked best from fruitstock and came up with the village fete. It seemed a natural progression really.


We're very confident that the village fete is going to be just as good as fruitstock if not better. Hope this sounds OK?

[ted at innocent]

We're all for lady morris dancers. Our Rachel even joined in with a 'side' recently..

http://tinyurl.com/25u58w

I'm going to change the title to morris people in hindsight.

[jo, a clockwork morris]

Some friends and I just learnt a bit of morris as a New Year's challenge. Thanks to Jeremy and the London Pride men who let us dance Balance The Straw with them last month in Canonbury - and let a girl in, too!

[annie]

wed on't have Morris Dancing here in wales, prefering to stick to our own indigenous country or folk dancing...men and women combine and it's a lot like Scottish Country Dancing which my Father -in-law teaches. Keeps you fit though...he's 74 and passes for 60 all the time. Morris Dancing looks energetic too, doesn't it?

[Annon]

Why is the only morris ever shown the flowery hanky stuff? As the daughter of a morris dancing family and former dancer (retired age 11) I've seem so many more entertaining groups who pack a bit more punch. Visit www.powderkegs.co.uk for a taste of the more colourful stuff.

Annon

[Adrienne Moss]

Your Rachel was privileged to dance with Crook Morris from the Kendal area. 20 years ago or so I was gobsmacked by their exhuberant love of dance, their sheer delight in sharing this love to others and teaching new dances,so furthering the Morris and telling everbody that this was a social/traditional/public/English way of life that was not going to die. Only Crook Morris would have encouraged my 7 year daughter to clog dance in public for the first time and as far as my family and our Morris team goes so on and so on...They have just celebrated their 25th anniversary.
They combine all this with musical talent on various instruments, innovative ceilith calling and they haven't paid me one penny for writing this. [Which is something I am going to sort out when I next see them]]

Adrienne Moss : Team- Ryknild Rabble, Staffs.

[Lucy]

annie,

Sorry to put you right but you do have morris dancers in Wales. There is a side called Isca who wear teacosy type things on their heads, I've been to many of their weekends held at Newport(Bringlass) and thoroughly enjoyed each one. There is also a side called Full Moon - another bunch of lovely jubbly people who hold a weekend every other year in a place in Wales - the name now escapes me but it's held at like a hippy place called Hafen y Coed (which I believe is Haven of Trees) both very welsh my dear.
There may be others but I can't think of them off hand.

[jo, a clockwork morris]

Border morris is the Welsh version. The dancers are blacked up with tattered coats - a little bit Papa Lazarou from League Of Gentlemen...

[Ned]

The term "Morris Dancers" usually does well enough.
Some reasons why handkerchief dances tend to be selected for arena displays by Cotswold Morris sides: The dancing "sets" tend to be much bigger than for stick dances. The dances are generally much more energetic. The handkerchiefs emphasise the height of the dancers and the height that they're jumping (that's what the handkerchiefs are for BTW). The footwork tends to be more complex.
There are Morris sides all over the world - including Wales and Scotland but most Morris, as danced today, is of English origin.

[Ian Bradshaw]

Hello. I dance and play for a mixed Border team called Wicket Brood from Hertfordshire. Can anyone tell me which teams will be dancing at the fete, and who to speak to to get an invitation? Thanks.

[dan at innocent]

Hello Ian. Someone will be in touch to talk about getting your team to dance at our fete - hope it happens. dan