Mudcat Café Message

sj

User Name	Thread Name	Subject	Posted
Crane Driver	Folklore: When did morris dancing become a joke? (102* d)	RE: Folklore: When did morris dancing become a joke?	01 Apr 09
I started dancing the Morris in (of all places) Edinburgh in the early 70s. At one point we had over 20 members, only 2 of which were over 30 years of age. It certainly wasn't treated as a joke in that time and place (not a natural home for the Morris, many would say). Sadly the Lothians Morris didn't survive. I guess attitudes changed. The original poster may want to look into the Battle of Marlborough, which certainly reached mythic proportions in the 70s. A group of Hells Angels began shouting insults at a visiting Morris side and got seven kinds of crap beaten out of them, which helped adjust attitudes towards the Morris in that part of the world for quite a while. But it's not just Morris. Too many 'opinion-formers' in England treat all forms of English folk culture as a joke, while being prepared to venerate folk culture from pretty well anywhere else. Sad Andrew

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