I started reading this thread Last Friday, just before leaving for the weekends "Morris Dancing" so this could go anywhere and will be exremely fractisized.

All Male sides can and do look good because of the the extreme masculine effort that they put into the dance. If you have ever seen "Jack in the Green" dance with their "Short sticks" about 14" long and at least 4" in diameter, they also travel vast distances during their dances. They even managed to break one of these at the London Ale (Ontario, not England) So I guess that covers the robust masculine stuff.

All female sides can and do look good and do great dances. To me a lot depends on the "Tradition" or the Style of Morris in question "Forest City" and two other sides whose names evade my scattered mind, one from california who dance in Pink and Black and one who attend the Toroto Ale from Michigan, are great examples of all womens sides. They seem to perform the "Hanky" dances with more grace and style than some all male sides.

Mixed sides can also work well, there are many sides on this side of the Atlantic who dance the "Cotswold" styles with both sexes of dancers. There are also several "Border" sides who I have seen dance with mixtures, "Bassett Street Hounds", "Woad Works" and of course the finest border side in the Universe (no bias here folks) "ORANGE PEEL". There are probably people that will argue that "Border" is not even Morris Dancing anyhow!

There are even a few "Childrens" sides around, you are never too young, or old in my case to learn.

A lot of the side I have mentioned above even have Canadians and Americans dancing with them, what about that

The "Tatter Coats" are exremely hot, mine is Black even, especially on 85+ deg days with no shade to dance in.

The face Blackening seems to have taken a turn to colour, with side like "Woad Works" Blue Faces, "Not for Joe" Red and Yellow(I think that is the right name and colour)This side also has a tradition called "smudging" probably not too appreciated by the audiences of soot blacked dancers.

I forget what elese I was going to say, lost my conection. Also lost many hours of sleep singing and dancing over the weekend.

I would just like to refer non believers on the Mixed sex issue to the song "Dancing at Whitsun" I think it is on the site, it speaks for itself.

I personally prefer to see anyone and everyone singing dancing and enjoying ALL of the traditional customs than to see them DIE!

Keep on Dancing and Singing JohnB