ORION COSTUMES Men's Morris Dancer Fancy Dress Costume

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A group of Morris dancers is called a side. Historically, Morris sides were exclusively male, but that is no longer the case. While a side can, hypothetically, consist of an infinite number of dancers, most have less than twenty, including the band. Most dances have only six to eight dancers on the floor at a time. Morris dancing used to be seen as exclusive for men. Actually, a group of morris dancers (which is called a side) can include both men and women. Dancers are usually male, but there are female morris dancers, too. The name is first recorded in English in the mid-15th century as Morisk dance, moreys daunce, morisse daunce, i.e. "Moorish dance". The term entered English via Flemish mooriske danse. Comparable terms in other languages include German Moriskentanz (also from the 15th century), French morisques, Croatian moreška, and moresco, moresca or morisca in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling Morris-dance first appears in the 17th century. [12] In Edward Phillips's The New World of English Words, first published in 1658, the term morisco was referenced as both "a Moor" and "the Morris dance, as it were the Moorish dance", while John Bullokar defined it in 1695 as "a certain dance used among the Moors; whence our Morris dance". [13] [14] One of Erasmus Grasser's small Moriskentänzer statues from 1480, showing what would have been termed a "moorish" dancer, where the other nine surviving carvings are fairer-skinned. All wear bells on their legs. Partly because women's and mixed sides were not eligible for full membership of the Morris Ring (this has now changed), two other national (and international) bodies were formed, the Morris Federation and Open Morris. All three bodies provide communication, advice, insurance, instructionals (teaching sessions) and social and dancing opportunities to their members. The three bodies co-operate on some issues, while maintaining their distinct identities. An umbrella body that includes all three, the Joint Morris Organisation, organises joint events and discusses issues that affect all members, such as access to both public liability and personal insurance cover. [34] Morris dancing in Wales [ edit ]

Hankies are used to emphasize hand gestures when dancing. It was only in the 1700s when handkerchiefs were added to the attire of morris dancers. It is believed to have been added to the ensemble ever since the long sleeves were substituted with something more simple. At the beginning of the last century when Sharp and other collectors sought out former morris dancers like Thomas Wright, they noted down the dances and tunes. In some cases only one or two men in an area knew any dances, but in others a side still continued to dance. For example at Bampton in the Bush, Oxfordshire, the morris has been performed without a break for more than four hundred years. The cover photograph is of the Traditional Bampton Morris Dancers.Rapper sword from Northumberland and County Durham, danced with short flexible sprung steel swords, usually for five dancers. Garland, Mike; Maher, John. "The Magic of the Morris". The Morris Ring. Archived from the original on 8 October 2011 . Retrieved 15 September 2011. The dance may have given name to the board games three men's morris, six men's morris and nine men's morris. Wright, Lucy (2017). 'Girls’ Carnival Morris Dancing and Contemporary Folk Dance Scholarship', Folklore, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 157 – 174. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0015587X.2016.1231486 This handkerchief dance has a pattern entirely peculiar to itself and was the first Nantgarw dance to see the light of day with the Cardiff Morris. The name of the dance is a Welsh idiom for a very large snowball, and it is so named because at one point in the dance the hand waving movements resemble the movements of somebody rolling a large snowball. [40]This is the original Nantgarw dance and was being danced by Cardiff Morris by 1974. [41] An article in the Welsh Folk Dance Magazine published in 1959 featured an article on this dance along with a photograph of a side performing it.

The Grand Union Canal Entertainment Company (Middleton-Metcalfe’s performance act): https://gucecompany.com/A set (which can also be referred to as a side) is a number of dancers in a particular arrangement for a dance. Most Cotswold Morris dances are danced in a rectangular set of six dancers, and most Northwest dances in a rectangular set of eight; but there are many exceptions. A jig is a dance performed by one (or sometimes two) dancers, rather than by a set. Its music does not usually have the rhythm implied by the word " jig" in other contexts. Mr McNulty confirmed the group had darkened their faces during the performance in “keeping with our tradition which is respected worldwide.”

This feature is especially present in Molly dancing. One if not some of the members of the side would wear women’s clothing unconvincingly for entertainment. Whoever is cross-dressed is called “The Molly.” Is Morris dancing a fertility dance? Morris dancing originated from various parts of the United Kingdom. The different variations have similarities as well as uniqueness when it comes to their performances. Burgess, Paul (2002). "The Mystery of the Whistling Sewermen: How Cecil Sharp Discovered Gloucestershire Morris Dancing". Folk Music Journal. 8 (2): 178–194. JSTOR 4522669. Today, there are six predominant styles of Morris dancing, and different dances or traditions within each style named after their region of origin. There are no hard and fast rules as to which Morris sides can perform dances from a tradition, but the original Nantgarw dance, Y Gaseg Eira, is considered to be a dance for the Welsh sides. Consequently, it is often performed by the sides Isca Morris [42] and Cardiff Morris. It was members of Cardiff Morris who developed the modern Nantgarw dances [39] and so they are the most common performers of these dances.

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The Morris Federation also includes members who perform similar forms of traditional dance or customs from the UK and further afield. Appalachian He told the Lancashire Telegraph: “In the past when I’ve worked on similar topics, I’ve never seen them as a racial thing at all. Alongside the Fool, there may be a mythical and mysterious Beast! Traditionally, this would have been a Hobbyhorse, but now it is just as likely to be a Dragon or a Unicorn. Be assured all morris Beasts are friendly and just love doing what Beasts do best: tormenting and teasing the audience, especially children. Additionally, they like sunbathing, riding bicycles, drinking beer, and eating - eating money of course, coins of the realm. Carnival morris dancing shares a parallel history with North West morris dancing but began to evolve independently from around the 1940s onwards. It remains extremely popular with upwards of 8000 current dancers. [52] A survey published in December 2020 [64] identified how the profile of morris dancers had evolved since the first survey published in 2014. The number of morris dancers in the UK had increased from 12,800 in 2014 to 13,600 in 2020. The average age of a morris dancer in the UK was 55, up from 52 in 2014. The survey also reported an even balance between male and female performers by 2020.