As one of the three founding members of Motley Morris from Dartford in kent, our original intention was to provide a contrast to the then ubiquitous Cotswold style, and all our original dozen or so dances were based on such information as was available from collected notations on the dances of Shropshire, Herefordshire and nearby, each one was based on at least one distinctive collected figure, and in the case of a couple of the dances it was possible to recreate more or less complete dances from the information.
I had a conversation with John Kirkpatrick about our intentions when he was performing at the Dartford Folk Club at this time as he had recently formed the Shropshire Bedlams, and received helpful advice and encouragement from him.
We were all aware that there was an obvious connection with black face minstrelsy, and chose not to stress the point, merely explaining the black faces as a theatrical disguise. we also did not fall into the trap of claiming "Pagan ritual authority" for our dancing, the side in fact contained both committed Christians, and people of what might be called "Neo Paganist" belief's and of no particular beliefs at all,
We all felt that whilst we were offering a new slant on the morris, and whilst it was to a great extent a modern creation. it was firmly rooted in the tradition, but based on a less well documented regional version of the Genre.
Unfortunately it seems that todays generation of "Border" Dancers have very little connection to or even knowledge of what there claiming to dance, it seems to consist, in the main, of dances choreographed in a style that has little to do with what is known of Border Morris as danced in the 19th century, coupled with lots of shrieking, outlandish costumes and fanciful stories about ancient Pagan Rites, None of which have any basis in fact, and to a large extent seems to have degenerated into a competition to see who can be the most grotesque. With very few exceptions it tends to be danced no very well, as the inherent simplicity of the dances makes them a hiding place for not very skilled dancers, Unlike Cotswold which requires a great deal of practice and skill.

I have not been involved in Morris for some years now, but still enjoy seeing it danced well whatever the style, and I have seen Motley Dancing in the last few years, and am gratified to see that their dances still have a distinct resemblance to the original repertoire put together all those years ago by Myself, Dave Masterson and Alan Austen.
As for the average age of Morris Dancers, even when I started Dancing Cotswold with Hartley Morris many years ago, it was difficult to get youngsters involved, and I guess it will always be a older mans (Persons !!) sport.