Morris dancing

in Aqua Scripto on 2 May 2006   Link to this

Morris Dancing was dancing that be held in England, it was done in each location where people loved to entertain themselves and others before Radio and the media stop people entetaining themselves. It be 500 yrs plus years old. Some would like to to upset the linguists by associating Morris with Moorish.
Still be going Strong, one that I have seen be the Thaxted display that be down the road from the Dunmow flitch group, [they that encouraged boy and girl not to arue during the first year of wedded bliss so that they could get a free fliche of Bacon.]
Many sites to follow up on those that have twinkle toes and like to dazzle the opposite sex.
Versions:-Cotswold be one version,NorthWest be another then the Border morris and then the East Anglia.
Morris dancing in Essex
There are references to morris dancing in Essex as far back as 1527, when the Churchwardens' accounts for Dunmow refer to payment for a black morris coat. Records show that the morris was also danced in Maldon, where the Chamberlain's accounts for 1540 refer to payments for bells, minstrels and morris dancers. The Barrington family of Hatfield Broad Oak made payments to morris dancers for Christmas entertainments between 1635 and 1660. In 1599 Will Kemp, an actor at the Globe Theatre at the time of William Shakespeare famed for his dancing, set out to dance the morris all the way from London to Norwich, through Ilford, Romford, Brentwood, Chelmsford, Braintree and Sudbury. This was known as Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder (although he took 27 days over the journey). And in his History of Dagenham (1904), J. P. Shawcross referred to morris dancing as one of the amusements of the lower orders in the 18th century. But by the time Sharp and his friends were collecting morris dances in the early years of the 20th century, morris had entirely died out in Essex

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/blackmoremorris/past...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/beyond/factsheet...
http://www.renaissance-faire.com/Renfaires/Ente...
many more.

in Aqua Scripto on 2 May 2006   Link to this

To See Moorish dance??? For those that want to take a jaunt in modern nag, it be less than hour on the M11 , ye could stop off at all of Pepys haunts, if thy stay on the old Roman Roads.
NE of London SE of Cambridge Thaxted old Wool Town few miles from Stansted Airfield. { Aero Porte }
http://www.thaxted.co.uk/?Thaxted_Morris_Men

The team dances traditional Cotswold dances in Thaxted and its surrounding towns and villages from May until September. The annual gathering of Morris Men from all over England usually takes place in Thaxted on the first weekend following the late May Bank Holiday. Morris dancing for our parish church's patronal festival takes place on the Saturday evening on or prior to June 24th - the birthday of St John the Baptist. The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is performed on these two occasions at 10.15pm approximately. The Morris is also performed in Thaxted on Easter Monday, the two May Bank Holidays, August Bank Holiday and Boxing Day

Lynn on 2 May 2006   Link to this

I've been known to watch this lot at 5.30am(ish), as the sun rises, on 1st May! http://www.ravensbourne.org/default.asp

TerryF on 2 May 2006   Link to this

Thanks to Lynn a cycling videoclip of Ravensbourne Morris Men (fd. 1947) dancing morris. http://www.ravensbourne.org/upton.asp

For the origins and meanings of "morris" see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dance

Lynn on 3 May 2006   Link to this

Thanks Terry - I didn't see that videoclip - I'm in the audience somewhere!