The organisation has begun a winter
recruitment drive.
The origins of morris dancing are
disputed. First recorded in England in the 15th century, “morris” may be a
derivation from the French morisque, meaning dance, though many
believe it arrived from Morocco via Spain. This may have lent the practice
its name (from the word “Moorish”).
Others trace the dances to ancient
fertility rites or martial exercises, or see them as a popular variant of
the clowning of court jesters.
Today there are four English troupes
that can trace their history in an unbroken line back to a popular
upsurgence of folk traditions in the 18th century.
In 1899, a time when morris dancing
was on the wane, Cecil Sharp, the celebrated collector of folk song and
dance, saw one of these troupes, the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers,
perform on Boxing Day.
He noted their distinctive music,
and would later travel the country recording the various morris traditions,
and in 1911 he founded the English Folk Dance Society, helping to spur a
revival.
There was a second revival after the
Second World War – and another in the 1970s. Brian Tasker, 62, Squire
(leader) of the Morris Ring, began dancing in those heady days, at the age
of 25.
“It was seen as a cool thing to do,”
he said. “Young people were marching with CND, Bob Dylan was at his height
and folk dancing was part of popular culture. Every town had three or four
folk-song clubs. A lot of people arrived in morris dancing then, but they
are now in their fifties and sixties.”
Mr Tasker thinks that today’s young
people are more self-conscious – and easily deterred from morris dancing.
“They try it but they are often teased by their fellows,” he said. “I feel
the costume morris dancers wear doesn’t help. If you modernised our costume
you might attract more interest. Right now it’s just not perceived as a
young person’s activity.”
John Russell, 71, a retired airport
worker who began dancing at the age of 11, saw his old troupe, The Beaux of
London City, disband in 2006. “We just couldn’t get the people in and we
were all getting too old,” he said.
In one small town in the Cotswolds
there is a “side” that bucks the trend.
The Chipping Campden Morris Men have
a history dating back to 1732, and count among their dancers fathers and
sons from the town. One of the musicians is aged 8; others are teenagers or
students at university, and all gather to dance at the Cotswold Olympiks,
the annual summer event where the strongest and bravest of the region test
their mettle in shin-kicking contests and tugs of war.
Alex Cranke, 21, who danced
throughout his teens and is now a student at Bangor University, told The
Times: “I have had comments [from other young people] I suppose, but I
have always thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s good exercise and it’s a really nice
tradition to keep up.”
Case study: Father and son
‘We take the dancing seriously,
but not ourselves’
Tim Sexton, 57, Squire and Fool of
the Chipping Campden Morris Men, introduced his son, Paddy, to the side.“I
joined in 1981 and when my son Paddy came along we thought it would be a
good idea to dress him up. At the age of 4 we had him pulling a cart at the
Scuttlebrooke Festival.
“Paddy is quite a traditionalist, he
has a British flag above his bed and he’s interested in British history.
This feeling of Englishness, a lot of people mock it. A lot of people will
mock morris dancers, but I say to them: ‘You try it, see how long you last’.
It’s far more vigorous than a lot of people realise.”
Paddy Sexton, 22, trainee history
teacher, said: “I have been dancing properly since I was 7. It was pretty
much a question of putting on funny clothes and following your dad around.
Whenever someone gets married and has a kid we are all hoping it will be a
boy, another dancer. It’s a long-term game. When I started I was lucky to
have friends doing it. I had a bit of trouble in school. Kids took the
mickey. As we grew up people got used to it. Young people do sometimes find
it embarrassing. As a country we tend to cast off our traditions. You take
the dancing seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously. People are so
self-conscious now, about not doing the same thing as everyone else. I love
it and hope to be dancing when I’m 60.”