|
05 Jun 02 - 05:36 PM (#723841) Subject: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST Apologies if this has been posted before, but I thought that some might be interested in this article from BBC News |
|
05 Jun 02 - 05:48 PM (#723846) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: TheBigPinkLad Loved it! |
|
05 Jun 02 - 06:25 PM (#723872) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Mr Red er these rocks, do we throw them or is there a traditional form of sling or catapult specifically "customised" for the purpose? |
|
05 Jun 02 - 06:36 PM (#723883) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Jacob B Here's the text, in case the link stops working: Confessions of a morris dancer By Simon Pipe BBC News Online Champion morris dancer Simon Pipe has little truck with suggestions that the tradition is dying out. Here he argues that bell ringing and stick waving still has a place in modern society. Forget free speech and democracy: if you want a sure sign of a decent society, I give you morris dancing. There's something basically all right about any country in which men, women and children can leap about in public with bells and other improbable adornments attached to their bodies. All cynicism is cast aside when the squeezebox wheezes into life - and with it, all that tosh about the English being stuffy and inhibited. Now a report by a think tank, The Future Foundation, says the morris is no longer seen as the quintessence of English traditional heritage. Dying tradition Just 24% of young Britons see morris as key part of heritage Future Foundation survey We're ranked just below The Rolling Stones in popularity. And the think tankers say that morris won't even feature in 50 years' time. I doubt it. The morris has come through worse than this over the past few hundred years. Revival of interest In 1899 there were just a handful of teams still performing when it was discovered in Oxfordshire by Cecil Sharp. He pedalled round the Cotswolds, pouring beer down old rustics to elicit the details of the dances that were distinctive to each village. Today there are more than 1,000 teams across the UK, North America and the Antipodes. The regional variations are many: black-faced hooliganism on the borders with Wales; men dressed as women in East Anglia; and stern-faced types with gardens on their heads, stomping in clogs on Lancashire cobbles. In Oxfordshire and surrounds, we wave hankies and clash sticks, the way folk always have round here. In my own village of Adderbury, we can tell you the names of men who were dancing on our green more than 100 years ago. Nowadays there are two rival sides in the village, fiercely divided on the way morris should be done but united in the passion of the dance. Over at Bampton, in the west of the county, they've been dancing every Whitsun for more than 200 years. They start at dawn and dance on pubs forecourts, in private gardens and at the old folks' home. Stirring stuff Old men and young lads go through time-honoured figures that are absorbed, not learned, and no one has to ask why they do it. It's nothing to do with fertility rites: in the old days, they did it for the drink and the money, but mainly in the hope of a good fight afterwards. Nowadays it brings together plumbers, academics, farmers, the chief executive of lastminute.com and yes, BBC News Online journalists. Morris dancers are practically a secret society. There's lots of bad morris, but the good stuff has guts. The sap rises and the adrenaline surges. The legendary Hammersmith Morris Men used to be followed around London by cohorts of adoring young women - so they claim. Nowadays, the women are more likely to be dancing themselves. And we're ambassadors - and innovators - for England. My own side, The Outside Capering Crew, has just gone down a storm in Dubai. We shared a hotel with Shaggy, the rap star, but it was our hobby horses that turned heads in the lobby. We slap faces, pull hair and rub bottoms and leapfrog over up-ended brooms. It's not traditional, but it's still morris. Which just goes to show: times change, but the morris endures, always evolving.
|
|
05 Jun 02 - 07:05 PM (#723902) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST,ozmacca For other opinions on this subject, may I suggest a quick shufti at the "There'll Always Be An England" thread. Not to be taken too seriously... just like morris itself. |
|
05 Jun 02 - 11:33 PM (#724040) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Liz the Squeak Oh dear, Nurse, the screens!!! LTS |
|
05 Jun 02 - 11:41 PM (#724043) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST,ozmacca I understand that I'm likely to be engaged in educating the female grandparent to participate in orally generating a partial vaccuum to the ovular product of the common domesticated fowl........ (eh?) but read Terry Pratchett's magnificently constructed description of Morris dancing in "Lords and Ladies" if you haven't done so already... Or even if you have done so. Put you off morris for life..... and elves too. |
|
06 Jun 02 - 05:48 AM (#724151) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: pavane As an ex-musician from Dubai-Sharjah Morris, (and once a guest musician with Hammersmith), I was interested to hear of the Dubia visit. I believe the local side is long defunct, but I may be wrong. There are a few old pics of Dubai-Sharjah Morris on my web site www.Greenhedges.com |
|
06 Jun 02 - 06:36 AM (#724161) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Bullfrog Jones I was wondering how the rocks hold the hankies....? |
|
06 Jun 02 - 12:49 PM (#724434) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Dave the Gnome Well, I've used both sticks and hankies - but never rocks! Don't you keep trapping your thumbs? Cheers Dave the Gnome |
|
06 Jun 02 - 01:03 PM (#724440) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: MMario ah - but what about Pterry's comments on Morris dancing in 'Reaper Man'? Makes you realize the importance... Are the Morris Dancing Rocks metamorphic? Igneous? Sedimentary? Pyroclastic? |
|
06 Jun 02 - 01:12 PM (#724446) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Morticia I don't believe a word about young women following Hammersmith about...I know Hammersmith Morris and the only people who follow them are the police and those wishing settlement of an outrageous bar bill. |
|
06 Jun 02 - 02:45 PM (#724533) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Liz the Squeak Morty, there has been the odd outraged father with a shotgun, but that was many, MANY years ago.... LTS |
|
06 Jun 02 - 05:11 PM (#724714) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Morticia There's been the odd cross mother too, but I've forgiven them.... |
|
06 Jun 02 - 05:20 PM (#724717) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: TheBigPinkLad For more on men with erect sticks, take a butcher's hook here |
|
06 Jun 02 - 06:52 PM (#724800) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Morticia That was fun, thanks *BG* |
|
06 Jun 02 - 08:02 PM (#724824) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST,ozmacca Larffed immoderate.... Oooh, me ribs.... Knew there had to SOMETHING said for morris.... Now, the only question is this. As this information is on public domain as it were, have the perpetrators been made aware that it may be used in evidence against them? And can I use it against the Antipodean exponents as well? |
|
06 Jun 02 - 11:37 PM (#724947) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Hrothgar I thought they wore black boots because their brown ones were being mended. |
|
07 Jun 02 - 12:00 AM (#724960) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Yorkshire Tony Ozmacca Note that this can only be cited as evidence against antipodean border morris sides. Cotswold is a different matter - except for the answer to would you like a beer.
|
|
07 Jun 02 - 02:12 AM (#725009) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Liz the Squeak You forgave them??? Morty, are you mellowing in your old age or did Nick do that thing with his puppy dog eyes and the flock head down the cleavage again? LTS |
|
07 Jun 02 - 06:25 AM (#725082) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Mr Happy rocks: lost marbles perhaps? |
|
07 Jun 02 - 12:28 PM (#725322) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST,JohnB I hope this takes you to my side,
|
|
07 Jun 02 - 12:34 PM (#725327) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: GUEST Try again, it looks the same as last time though. Orange Peel Morris JohnB |
|
07 Jun 02 - 02:56 PM (#725417) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Mr Red MMario In NZ they have "Rotten Rock" - compressed clay that has not had enough heat or pressure or time, it crumbles rather than washes-out. Would this be more suitable? |
|
08 Jun 02 - 05:48 AM (#725904) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: ozmacca Oh, schist! |
|
08 Jun 02 - 06:17 AM (#725909) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: lady penelope Why do you think Hammersmith started selling "guilt by association" tee shirts?!? TTFN M'Lady P. |
|
08 Jun 02 - 08:05 AM (#725947) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Hrothgar How many Morris dancers does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but have you ever found one sober enough? |
|
08 Jun 02 - 09:05 AM (#725969) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: bobby's girl Having known Simon Pipe for a number of years, practically since he learned to Morris dance with Frome Valley Morris in Dorset, I would advise anybody who gets the chance to watch him dance - he is brilliant, and the uotside Capering Crew are totally brilliant, they really do rock!!! |
|
08 Jun 02 - 11:03 AM (#726001) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Peg There will be a production of the play "Lords and ladies" by Terry Pratchett performed in the Rollright Stones (near Banbury) in August. Check out the Friends of the Rollright Stones website for updates and how to get tickets...www.rollrightstones.co.uk
|
|
09 Jun 02 - 04:48 AM (#726429) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Mr Red Hrothgar close but there is always a pedant who knows the trad answer! Only one, but the rest of the side have to get so drunk the room turns round. |
|
09 Jun 02 - 04:43 PM (#726704) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: the lemonade lady Rollright stones. Has anybody managed to count them? Mr. Red? |
|
09 Jun 02 - 05:32 PM (#726724) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Herga Kitty Will you come to the rolling of the stones? Kitty |
|
09 Jun 02 - 06:08 PM (#726742) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Mr Red Rollright stone - been there counted them, written the song. Who's been listening to my CD then? FWIW the correct answer to the number of Rollright stones - and I challenge anyone to try and count them - is somewhare between 70 and 75. It is best to go in groups and see the arguments after you compare notes. I don't know any morris that dance there on midsummer's eve - all sorts of other strange people though. another indefinite answer to Morris Rocks there. |
|
03 Jul 02 - 11:13 PM (#741914) Subject: RE: Morris Dancing Rocks! From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull |