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Post by whisker on Jul 29, 2011 4:10:46 GMT
I love to see these Morris men and it looks great fun long may it live on.
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Post by whisker on Jul 29, 2011 4:14:37 GMT
What Is Morris Dancing?
The name "Morris" refers to many forms of traditional dance and drama in Britain and falls into several distinct groups:-
Cotswold Morris - the traditional dance of the South Midlands in which six men performed to the accompaniment of a musician often with a fool and hobby horse or other animal totem. Each village had it's own dances and style of dancing although many of the tunes were widespread. Cotswold Morris sides usually dress in white and wear bells on shin pads and can be seen dancing with sticks or handkerchiefs.
Northwest Morris - the style of dance from the North west of England from Cheshire to Westmorland. It is often performed in clogs by large numbers of dancers accompanied by a band. The dancers carry sticks, slings or garlands.
Border Morris - From the border counties of Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester. The dancers number six or eight and wear rag costumes. Many sides blacken their faces.
Rapper Sword - Dance performed with a double handled flexible metal strip known as a Rapper. The dance is basically 5 men accompanied by a "Tommy" or a "Betty" or both. They perform circling or intertwining figures without breaking the circle they have formed, except at the climax of the dance when the swords are interlocked to form the "lock" which is held aloft. There are Rapper teams throughout Northumbria, Tyneside, North Yorkshire and many of these were associated with the coal pits.
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Post by whisker on Jul 29, 2011 4:16:01 GMT
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Post by elaine on Jul 29, 2011 22:52:08 GMT
I love to see Morris men, and I do see them when in the area, or at a pub not too far away from me. You either love them, or hate them, but I love them. It is more then just a group of men dancing, every dance has its origins and story behind it too.
I saw them last year in Thaxted church. I will dig out my pics when I find them in PB, and post some up for all to see.
All the pics are great, but the last ones, with the blackened faces are Molly Dancers, or Plough witches. They dance with what I call, hob nailed boots, or Cloggs.
Mollys danced after twelfth night, as it was then, the men were able to return back to work, and used to do dances and merriment for the rich folk of the towns, hoping to be given money, or food to tide them over, during the hard no working months of winter.
Some of the e Molly gangs with blackened faces, would take revenge and on the rich if they did not get food, or money, so the black disguise was used, as they could not be recognised, should they plough a furrow in the lawns of the rich.
The get up was very plain, but over the years, more brighter costumes were worn, and you have woman dancers too, with tambourines, and drums.
I saw them ages back outside a cafe, it was good to see the blackened faces, although they did look scary.
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