morris sticks

Subject: morris sticks
From: GUEST,brassy sharman
Date: 22 Oct 07 - 02:15 PM

During one of our winter dance outs I was asked a question by one of the thousands (its the drink makes em look like a crowd) watching us . Why some dance's are danced with short sticks and others with long sticks .   None of our morris side knew even though the combined ages add up to well over a thousand years.   Has anyone any ideas/ knowledge they could impart please.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: RTim
Date: 22 Oct 07 - 02:25 PM

It depends upon the Tradition danced!
As "Cotswold" Morris was a mix between Whitsun Ale Morris - which was mainly handkerchief and from the South of the West Midlands, & Bedlam Stick Morris - which was prodominately a Stick dance and from the more Northern area, it depend on where the village was in that matrix.
Adderbury - in the North - has the longest sticks at 36 inches - and that length is necessary because of the complex patterns and way the sticks are used.
But really it is more complcated thatn this explanation!

Tim Radford (ex- Adderbury Foreman & Squire for 21 years)

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Folkiedave
Date: 22 Oct 07 - 03:46 PM

Ehhh,,,,,And I thought they were simply phallic symbols Tim!! Where size did not matter of course.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: skipy
Date: 22 Oct 07 - 03:53 PM

There was a smashed up stick for sale on Ebay about 18 months cago & some pratt bought it!
Them I made a case for it & I take to festivals with me!
Skipy

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 03:44 AM

I believe that making plaster casts of penises is not unknown. Is this a lost "Morris Tradition"?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Morris-ey
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 06:19 AM

Like much about Morris, no one really knows. All our sticks started long and bcame shorter through use. How long we continued to use them depended on how brave (or drunk) we were.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 06:22 AM

Somewhere here I sense a metaphor?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: GUEST,brassy sharman
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 01:55 PM

thankyou all for your contributions it is a lot clearer now lol.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 03:41 PM

Does it?

:D

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 03:55 PM

I suspect it depends a lot on how often a morris team likes getting its fingers whacked. Longer sticks mean bigger target areas and less chance of breaking a digit. Shorter sticks mean that faster and more complicated measures can be accomplished, but at the risk of injury.

It's not the size that matters, it what you do with it that counts.

So he keeps telling me.

LTS

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 04:32 PM

Maybe you should whack it more often.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 04:36 PM

Whack it too often and you go blind, I'm told.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 06:19 PM

Pardon?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 23 Oct 07 - 06:59 PM

Metaphor, metaphor, what's a metaphor?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Ernest
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 02:13 AM

metaphor = amphora used to store Met.
Met = german for Mead

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:03 AM

It's for measuring the rhythm of the music or dance.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 03:22 AM

I guess that's the rhythm method then?

I saw a TV programme where a women described a collection of plaster casts that she had made of the members of famous rock stars, so to speak one of which was Jimmi Henrix. So close the Morris in a way?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: TheSnail
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 05:31 AM

Metaphor?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 05:33 AM

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 07:23 AM

Ah but he doesn't use a stick anymore, he's got one of those bendy sword thingies. One of his partners nearly had his eye out with it a couple of weeks ago.

LTS

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 07:33 AM

So many erotic images, so little time ...........

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 07:49 AM

Morris men of the world stick together

(and ladies)

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 07:50 AM

This must come to an end.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 12:42 PM

Re-arrange the above words (or some of them) into a well-known phrase or saying

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 24 Oct 07 - 08:27 PM

Of course some people don't use sticks but scaffolding poles, which never get broken...(Royal Liberty at Broadstairs)

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: GUEST, Mikefule
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 02:14 AM

The majority of the short-stick dances I have seen/danced are from the Headington tradition. At the time that Sharp collected the dance, the side was made up mainly of people from the building trade. The sticks are about the same size as the handles of hammers/mallets etc. The Headington dances are generally small, brisk and tidy, with crisp movements suited to using short sticks.

There are no long stick Headington dances.

Most other traditions use long sticks, which are about the right length to reach the ground easily, or to hold with both hands and still clash safely. There is a certain length of stick that feels right for doing the dance. Too long becomes unwieldy; too short is fiddly. By coincidence, that is about the right length for the "sword fighting" and "staff fighting" type choruses to look right.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 02:47 AM

Royal Liberty have also been known to use pick axe handles, being hickory, they have some give and are the perfect length.

LTS

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: jonm
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 03:47 AM

....and when a hickory pick handle breaks, it shatters, leaving splinters in your hand and several sharp pieces heading for the audience!

Ash or hazel breaks more predictably.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: theleveller
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 04:43 AM

"Royal Liberty have also been known to use pick axe handles,"

Presumably that was for the bank jobs. Those morris costumes make the perfect disguise.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 05:03 AM

And a perfect cover to be collecting in a big gang in the street!

I think "Morris Dancing - some alternative conclusions" should be re-issued

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 07:11 AM

It'd make a great movie.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:26 AM

Scaffold poles may not break but they fuck the hands and wrists up as there is no give. Pick-axe handles are generally made of American hickory and also have very little give. I know this because we tried them while I was still with Royal Liberty - the only advantage was that they were easily obtainable and didn't need any preparation.

The best sticks I've had were obtained from a morris man who had another hobby of woodland conservancy.

Something like ash, hazel or holly is much better.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:38 AM

Any alternatives to handkerchiefs in use? For example, socks?

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: theleveller
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:40 AM

I saw some women waving their knickers in the air at a Seth Lakekman concert and doing a most peculiar type of dance.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:40 AM

Used to have a Traveller; it often stuck too. It was the electric fuel pump, I found.

Ah - sorry...

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:51 AM

Exactly what does one need to do to provoke the "Seth Effect?"

Les
The Retirement Home
Cholrton

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Folkiedave
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 09:08 AM

Breadsticks work well for fun - but our squire at the time Gerry "two dinners" Bates objected to the abuse of food.

Dancing at a hanky-waving weekend with Great Western our sticks were gradually replaced with short fat logs off a woodpile at one point.

(Tip with Great Western, get your retaliation in first).

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: GUEST,Bill the sound
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:55 PM

The only thing I know about morris sticks is-If you get hit by one it bloody hurts

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 09:11 PM

I've sometimes wished there could be an Irish Morris Tradition using hurleys.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 02:55 AM

There's a ceilidh dance that involves the couple using a handkerchief, each holding an opposite corner, rather than holding hands - can't for the life of me remember what it's called - but on the one occasion I danced it, neither my partner nor I had a handkerchief or scarf.

We used my bra instead.

Mind you, I was younger and considerably firmer in those days and didn't have the frozen shoulder that makes bra removal by self a 20 minute process with lots of swearing.

LTS

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:03 AM

Look Liz we usually buy Gentleman's magazines for this kind of thing.

Les
The Retirement Home
Cholrton

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Folkiedave
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:12 AM

When abroad at festivals the Irish dance teams (IMHE) do "acts" and certainly one I saw back in 1988 by the Moira Shanahan dancers involved hurley sticks. (I don't know if this still goes on - it looked a bit twee to us)

As morris dancers we didn't argue whose stick was the biggest.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: theleveller
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:17 AM

"didn't have the frozen shoulder that makes bra removal by self a 20 minute process with lots of swearing."

You need to get help with that, Liz.

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:36 AM

Got an appointment this afternoon leveller!

Or were you meaning something else?

Les in Chorlton - didn't we share a tent at a Yorkshire Gathering once?

LTS

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 03:56 AM

To be honest I have never been to a Yorkshire Gathering, but I am happy to think I might have done!

Les
The Retirement Home
Cholrton

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 04:01 AM

But now I think of it, we are sometimes taken on trips from the "Home", they don't always tell us where we are going or why, so perhaps we have shared a tent!

Les
The Retirement Home
Cholrton

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: GUEST,Ned at work
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 08:03 AM

I've often shared a Scout hut with you Liz. Very pleasant!

Subject: RE: morris sticks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 08:37 PM

Must have been a Les from somewhere else then...

Ned, the pleasure was mostly mine. Any time you want to repeat the experience I'm sure I can find a spare woggle for you.

LTS