Morris Dancing to die out in 20 years!

[morningpaper]

Young people are too embarassed to Morris Dance so it is dying out

Is this really a Great Loss?

oh look, I said similar to faq

Google harder woman. Try!

I wouldn't miss them if they died out

It's weird

I always expect the Devil to appear

Gosh is the world of Morris Dancing in schism then SGB?

You mention the Morris Open. You mention also that there is a group of morris dancers called the morris Fed. This conjures up images of dark glasses and sharp jackets atop those rakish outfits.

There is also, you say, a group of morris dancers called the Morris Ring. This conjures up images ...

What is your particular sect?

well, I suppose I would only miss them if I thought about them. Which might be once every two years or so. It is a ridiculous yet humourless dance which non-morrisers can't really join in with.

It conjures up images of interminable committee meetings...

i did something called country dancing at primary school. there was circassian circle and all sorts of stuff. i was a lumpen child and still enjoyed it.

revival of organised dancing in schools would be lovely, ds would love it.

you are all watching the wrong Morrises! They can be women, or devil headed loons, or crazy fat bearded fellows. Ds is 5 and ADORES them. No folkey festival complete without them.

i saw one morris dancing group do a stick dance with rhubarb and between whacking their opponents' sticks they dipped them in bowls of custard on the ground, so all the spectators (and there were loads) got slightly custardy. that was less boring than some. the worst sight is when women with fat bottoms wear tight white trousers and try to jump high, when obviously they look no way a sexy as young men from rural england in tight white trousers (well toned bottoms, muscular thighs, robust springy calves, perfume of many women from the night before lingering round their tanned, manly chests, little bottles of naughty Whisky mac in their silver hip-flasks.....mmmmmmn) - shhhh don't tell DP, he just knows the tunes, not the dances....

Woolymummy: You've seen Dogrose then
Quattrocentro - I'm a Fed member. All welcome. The Morris Ring don't allow women members (which is possibly why they think Morris is dying out.)

however, most of these men are actually quite crap at dancing with a woman one to one unless you are very lucky. much more sexy is latin stuff, it's just with morris you get to ogle men's bodies and compare muscle tone/stamina etc directly all very primative i guess but that is the point of dancing

Was morris dancing traditionally men-only, though?

Seemed to be an awful lot of dancers - male and female - when I happened upon a folk festival in the nearby small city last year.

Edam: NO! No it farking well wasn't. Mary Neale was as important as Cecil Sharp in collecting the dances, teaching them, keeping them alive etc.
Woolymummy, ever been to a ceilidh with a lot of Morris people? Plenty of enjoyable one-to-one dancing to be had there. Find a fit bloke to dance with, hope it's either The COmmittee Band or Tickled Pink playing and cross your fingers that they do Rosa...

Yes, but before we get to Mary Neale and Cecil Sharp - in ye olden days?

oh, no! the sky is falling!

NOT.

Wasn't Madamez into S&M morris dancing?

I REALLY don't want to know what that's all about. Really!

a ceilidh with morris dancers? Wouldn't that be a ceilidh then?

ah solids, you has no answer

"Hey Nonny No"

I think Morris Dancers make me physicaaly ill. Glad I am not the only one who...well....loathes it with a passion. I would avoid anywhere where they would be appearing

Sorry

I think it's quite good. It reminds me a little bit of Irish dancing. My dc aged six would LOVE it.

Bring it back for children, why not, it'd make a change from ballet, and it'd be one the boys could do.

what a load of baloney
there are loads of morris sides and English dance sides out there. this really isa slow news week

I love the Morris and lovewatching the sides, especially the scary black faced ones.

went out with a morris dancer once. he was LUSH AS.

We see Morris dancers every Boxing day, in front of Gloucester Cathedral as a prelude to the Mummers play. One of the troupes is all-women, and another (from deep in the Forest of Dean) wear leather waistcoats and some of them are genuinely young... one with one of those partly-shaved, partly long hairstyles. Really cool seeing someone like that morris dancing.

There was a great description of it on Radio4 a few weeks ago (comedian enumerating all the things Madonna should miss about England, alongside ramblers etc).

"Morris dancing - the least stealthy of the martial arts"

Chimed with a thought I'd had before...you know when the Kiwi rugby team do their Maori dance and toungue-sticking-out routine? Well, our chaps should retaliate with a good hanky and bells routine. I think that would be truly frightening!

sexy morris boys