Morris Dancing?

Subject: Morris Dancing
From: Swaggering Boney (inactive)
Date: 07 May 99 - 05:16 PM

does anyone in the forum know of sites that have a midi archive of Cotswold Morris tunes within?

Please drop me an email to let me know

mailto:[e-mail]

Cheers

Mitch

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 07 May 99 - 10:19 PM

If this doesn't get you somewhere, I don't know what will: Click here

Subject: Morris Dancing?
From: Caitrin
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 06:57 PM

I've seen Morris dancing mentioned in several threads. I know this makes me a woefully ignorant lass, but I don't really know what it is. Would anyone be so kind as to fill me in?

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Freddie Fox
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 07:08 PM

Morris dancing - the name taken from 'Moorish' - supposedly originated amongst the Moors in Spain many years ago [how long? I don't know]. It came to England a good 300 - 400 years ago - mentions of it are found in Tudor and Stuart texts - and it is a very stylised, traditionally male, form of country dancing. There are a lot of tie-ins with folk lore - the fool with his bladder, the horse [ie. an interruption with a horses head] and various other elements; the dancing on the whole is done with bells around the ankles and sticks in the hand. That's as far as my knowledge goes, although I've watched Morris troops of varing degrees of competence many times as a child [the penalties of being brought up in the Cotswolds]. Now let the experts come and put me right on detail as usual!

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 07:43 PM

Well, you can look at my team's web page here or a more general info page here
Caution: morris dancing can be addictive!
Cheers, Allison

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 07:45 PM

Darn. Here's the other info page, I hope! What is Morris?

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Nov 99 - 07:45 PM

Caitrin - Try these pages, and follow the links: http://home.clara.net/krt/homepage.htm http://www.themorrisring.org/

and for a song about it: http://www.macgrath.freeserve.co.uk/Songlists/Green%20Heart.htm#The Ghost of Merry England

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: roopoo
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 04:59 AM

You could also browse into the Morris Federation. Just visit any of the sides' websites on there. The origins of Morris are lost in the mists of ritual dance, despite the origins of its present label, although I'd guess any Dark Age dancer would fail to recognise it in its present forms.

mouldy (Also Squire of Terpsichore North West Morris)

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 05:52 AM

This thread started here farily recently and might be worth checking out http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=13916

Jon

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 09:33 AM

Imagine a group of fat, bearded blokes, all bouncing up and down, nearly in time with each other, if not with the strains of a melodeon, drum and (quite often out of tune) fiddle. One of the prominent motifs is the bell, another is beer. That's morris dancing. It can be done occasionally by athletic young Lochinvars, who are spot on and precise in their stepping and music, but that isn't all that often, and usually only in dreams. One point to note though, is that morris dancers usually have lovely butts. I am qualified to do this, because, not only have I had 4 boyfriends who were dancers, I married a dancer,2 of his previous girlfriends danced, his brother is a dancer. I danced myself once or twice, with my sister in law and her mother, my best friend's cousin is a highly esteemed dancer and I've marched with the Albion Morris team at a parade in Toronto on July 4th. I have even sewn up a baldrick!

Yes, girls can do it too, although they are quite often laughed at, and some deserve it, and they get to be butch and macho or pretty flowery pansy things.

My advice to anyone who wants to take it up - make sure you start with a team that are patient, and make mistakes themselves, a team that think they are the best in the country are very often not!! Start local unless you are chronically embarassed and above all, don't mind being laughed at - there is a lot of laughing at Morris Dancing... Oh, it helps if you can quaff beer. Quaffing is like drinking, but you spill more...

LTS

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 12:46 PM

Liz!!?? You cut me to the quick!! butch? Macho?? Pretty flowery pansy things??!!????? You haven't been to this side of the puddle lately, have you? Womens teams do exist, as do mixed, and we're much more the computer-geek types who don't have a clue as to type or style other than the cameraderie, the music, the fun of having a (relatively) safe place to bash around with sticks, and, of course, the beer. There are deviations from the norm; I'll see if I can find one particular California team's web page to post here. But your 3 terms describing women's morris don't necessarily apply!
Allison-grinning-and-reaching-for-her-stick

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 12:50 PM

As I said, there are a few deviations from the norm
WARNING: not for the faint of heart!!

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 12:53 PM

I'll try that one more time. When I click on http://www.slip.net/~wjr/whiterats/index.html it turns out fine. Dunno why it didn't work.
White Rats "morris"?

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Caitrin
Date: 14 Nov 99 - 01:02 PM

Wow...thank you all. I looked at a few of your webpages, so I at least have the basic idea of it. It definitely looks interesting. :)

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 09:59 AM

Animatt.

I'm basing the womens morris on the dancers I know and team I danced with, of whom 80% were big girls' blouses, and the other 20% could be what is affectionately known as 'bull dykes'. There are teams around that dance energetically, or with passion, and accurately, but they don't tend to be the flowery skirted, beribboned and behooped teams. And yes, I do approve of women's morris, although I know several traitors to the cause of suffrage who would dispute that. I just object to morris danced badly, by teams that should know better, and never seem to improve with age.

When Albion Morris went to Canada a few years ago, we were asked at customs if we were working or there for pleasure, one idiot said a bit of both, and was immediately hustled into a room. After about 20 mins another officer was summoned. After a total wait of about 35 mins, he was led out by a couple of officers, laughing. When questioned he said that they had asked him about the nature of the work. He said morris dancing, and it then took the customs officers 30 mins to decide whether the team were going to put any Canadians out of work, by being there. The fellow officer had been summoned as being knowledgable about these things. When asked were we likely to be putting Canadian morris dancers out of work, he replied 'Have you seen the Toronto morris team? To put them out of work would be a kindness, let them go!!'

LTS

---

Messages from multiple threads combined. Messages below Marked "Morris II" are from a new thread. I think I found and fixed the problem that was locking the thread for Netscape users.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Morris Dancing II
From: Rana
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 10:20 AM

Hi, I tried to post to the Morris thread but the system would only show the first 2 messages and not let me submit (subtle censorship? :-)). It did allow me to reverse the order, so I could read the posts, but again not submit. Has this come up before?

What I wanted to say was that a new book has come out called History of Morris Dancing 1483 - 1750 by John Forrest - the British Publishers web page is this

http://www.lutterworth.com/jamesclarke/jc/titles/morris.htm

it's also put out by U. of Toronto Press, but can I find it in Toronto, even at the U. of T. bookstore or libraries.

Has any Mud-Morris Dancer seen it. There is discussion on the MDDl (Morris Dancing Discussion list) though no reviews - I may look for a copy in England over Xmas.

Liz, your stories on visiting Toronto have been great, have you ever posted them to MDDL?

Regards Rana

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 10:38 AM

I haven't seen Forrest's book, though I saw some of his Master's thesis. He believes (or believed), if I understand his thesis, that the choreography of Morris was strongly influenced in the 1700s by the choreography of another dance form known as the Matachin. I don't know what the scholarly reception of this thesis has been.

A good source of what is known about the history of morris is Kieth Chandler, "Ribbons, Bells and Squeaking Fiddles"-The Social History of Morris Dancing in the English South Midlands, 1660-1900, Hisarlik Press, 1993.

T.

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: Roger the skiffler
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 10:40 AM

I got the same result on the original thread, Rana, and I am not and never have been a Morris dancer so it's obviously not a conspiracy against MD, perhaps it's a conspiracy against exiled Brummies.
RtS

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Nov 99 - 12:38 PM

I am not now nor have I ever been a member of the Morris Federation......

And I daren't post the Toronto stories, we want to go back there next year.....

LTS

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 09:15 AM

I'd have to say that Toronto Morris team have improved greatly since then and they weren't that bad either, certainly better than some teams I've seen in UK, and I'm not going to name them, I know some of them too well!!!

LTS

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: Flipsusan Karomi
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 11:37 AM

Morris Dancing is actually inherited genetically. I've come up with a theory and it can be read by anyone who's interested in the "Freak Zone" on my homepage at http://members.tripod.co.uk/helbell . An understanding of genetics is quite useful if you read this, but not essential.

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: Bert
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 11:40 AM

Rana, the thread dies on Netscape but works fine on Explorer.

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing II
From: Rana
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 12:10 PM

Hi Liz,

The MDDL is the Morris Dancers Discussion list and has nothing to do with the Federation (or the Ring). I subscribe but my delete key is very busy and I hardly post.

I'm sure the Toronto morris teams (I'm with Green Fiddle) would not hold a grudge against your stories - I actually mentioned the lion head on a stick to some last night.

Cheers Rana

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Little Dorrit
Date: 16 Nov 99 - 04:53 PM

the Witchmen from Kettering are an amazing set of morris dancers- not the least because they all appear to be seven foot tall and howl like banshees. Try to catch them at a festival near you!

Subject: RE: Morris Dancing?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Nov 99 - 02:29 PM

Oooh, Dorrit minor, I know someone who might like to book them... do you have a contact address?

LTS