i'm 15 years old, and in response to the original message, would like to say with great enthusiasm that myself and several of my friends are very proud to call ourselves morris dancers!
The shortage of young dancers is probably due to the stereotypical image that most people have of morris dancing (which goes somewhere along the lines of Bells, Flowers, Hankies and bearded old men). They dont realise that most morris dancing aint like that at all, until they witness it for themselves.
However, i don't think the tradition is under threat of extinction, because i know there are loads of other young morris sides who are just as passionate as the older generation of morris dancers about keeping the tradition alive.
Vive La Morris!

xx