1. Morris Dancing: Phenomena or Fad
Or What’s wrong with dancing that ends with drinking?

2. A hundred years ago Cecil Sharp wrote:
"When he is dancing, the true morris-man is serious of countenance, yet gay of heart; vigorous, yet restrained; a strong man rejoicing in his strength, yet graceful, controlled, and perfectly dignified withal"

3. How many morris dancers does it take to change a lightbulb?
6 (or 7) one to hold on to the bulb, the others to get drunk enough the room spins around.

4. What do you know about Morris Dancing?
Some Myths (or half truths anyway)
It’s a fertility dance
It’s pagan
It was brought to England from Spain (well this one may be true)
Only men dance it and they are overweight, bearded, white and British
All of the dances come from the late 19th century
There’s only two dances
Nobody’s ever heard of it
The music will tell you what to do (well almost)

5. What’s More Likely to be true
It’s a type of folk dance danced to live music
Dancers use sticks and hankies (though not usually at the same time)
The English record Morris dancing as far back as 15th Century and is noted in Shakespeare
The term ‘Morris’ might have come from the term ‘Moorish Dance’ (which connects the custom to Africa!)
It’s not just British! There are 150 sides (or teams) in the US alone

6. Morris Dancing is a Big Umbrella
Different dance styles or traditions
Cotswold
Border
Garland
Molly
Northwest
Rapper

7. Border

8. Border Morris Relative recent dance style
Coming from the “border” regions w/ Wales
Costume or “kit” – tatters and sticks
Face painting disguises
Energetic, bouncy style (skipping)
Record of border type dances in the early 1920’s. Revival begun in the 1960’s, picked up steam in the 1980s
Some traditional, many recently composed dances
Border in Portland: Renegade Rose and Bridgetown Morris dance border. BMM in traditional kit

9. Border Morris

10. Tinners Rabbit – A simple border dance

11. Garland Dancers

12. Garland
A dance form developed by workers in the cotton mills in the 18th century. As a result, some teams dance in clogs.
Draws also on Victorian May Day traditions
Stately, genteel
Done primarily by women
Dance kit includes garlands, half hoops decorated with brightly colored silk flowers and ribbons.
Dances rely primarily on patterns using dancers.
Portland is home to Wild Rose Garland

13. Garland
swf

14. Molly Dancing

15. Molly Dancing
Molly dancing is most associated with Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany.
Colorful costumes and face paint
Simple dance stepping
No sticks or hankies

16. Molly dancing Ww

17. Northwest Clog

18. Northwest Clog Danced by men and women
Owes its origins to the industrial revolution and millworkers
Important part of kit are the wooden soled “clogs” that make a solid sound
Dances often feature the “rant’ step
May be done barehanded or with twizzlers

19. NorthWest Clog M

20. Rapper and Sword

21. Rapper and Sword Rapper: a traditional dance from coal mining villages
5 dancers connected by a short,
flexible, blunt sword called a rapper
Longsword comes from Yorkshire and
other areas
For longsword, rigid swords are used
and held point and hilt between the
dancers, connected through the swords in a circle
Longsword is still often performed by village teams that can trace a lineage
In Portland, Iron Mountain Sword performs both kinds but mainly rapper
Portland Christmas Revels often features a sword dance

22. Rapper
jPGCOGBHN8

23. Cotswold teams: Current look

24. Cotswold Morris The original “tradition”
From the Cotswold region west of London
Dances were village dances
performed by village teams
May be dated to the 1500s
Shakespeare mentions
Morris dancing.

25. Cotswold Morris
Cecil Sharp collected morris dances and contributed to the revival in the early 1900s
Mary Neal assisted Sharp and lead to the effort to involve women in Morris dancing
The word “morris” and the dance tradition may be linked to other dance forms called moresca common in Croatia. There are also links to Spain and French dance.
Did women dance morris?

26. Cotswold Morris
Dances are done by teams in “sets” or configurations of 4,6, or 8 dancers (typically)
Dancers typically wear knee breeches, baldrics and bells (and shirts of course)
Dances are considered either “traditional” from a specific village or “composed” that is more recently written.
A traditional kit 1895

27. Extreme Morris Dancing
With fire
Contemporary (Morris offspring)
Steampunk morris

28. Teams in Portland and around
Renegade Rose: Cotswold and some border
Mixed men/women
Bridgetown Morris Men: Cotswold and border
Men only
Iron Mountain Sword: Rapper and longsword
Wild Rose Garland
Primarily women
AND
Three Rivers Morris, Eugene: Mostly Cotswold
Mixed men and women

29. about Renegade Rose

30. Some facts about Renegade Rose
Formed in 2002
Both female and male dancers
Dance both traditional and composed dances
Traditions include Bampton, Fieldtown, Litchfield
Newly composed dances from Alaska, Berkeley, southern England and elsewhere
We dance and we sing
Our motto: fun dances to good music

31. Musicians, in the background, also wear the kit or costume of the team
What’s up with the Kit?
The hats are often designed to reflect the side and the person wearing it.
Baldrick and armbands are decorative items that distinguish a team.
Sticks and hankies are both used. Sticks may be cut from local trees or ax handles may be used as in this case
The bells have been worn by Morris dancers for centuries and some say they are used to scare away evil spirits!
Comfortable shoes

32. Design Your Own Morris Badge or Emblem

33. Wanna dance or play? Contact us: renegaderose.net
Come to practice Thursdays 7-9 at Cedarwood Waldorf School 3030 SW 2st in Portland
If you can talk you can sing, if you can walk you can dance. (Zimbabweian proverb)
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Thank You