Morris dancing, an ancient form of English dance, and no-one is quite sure where it came from. However it is still going fairly strong to this day. Although it does have a some what out dated image I feel that it is something very important to English culture and should not be lost. This is in a way what I wanted to do when I came up with the idea for this Documentary.
The child of Morris dancers and a Morris dancer myself I have a strong heritege int eh tradition and others like myself are keen to dispel the image that morris has gained its self.
Th eworld of Morris is a broad spectrum with many different forms so I have decided to cencentrate this post ont eh styles we will feature in the film; Border and Cotswald.
Forst Border is a style that is thought to originate from the area aroung the England/Wales Border. Generally Dancer have blacked faces. A tradition that originates from needing to be disguised as dancing out in centuries past could be considered to be begging and therefore illegal. many of these teams are still founf in England. Thrir style tends to be quite boysterous. The three teams that revived Border in the 70 were The Paradise Islanders, Silurian and the Shropshire Bedlams. From here the style has grown in popularity and there are now many Border teams throughout the country and beyond. They are distinguish able by their kit. It consists of a rag Jacket, Bells and a painted face. There are variants on this but you's be hard pushed to find a team that doesn't have these characteristics. They also dance with sticks and tend to make a lot of noise.
In our film we are focusing onw the Border team Boggart's Breakfast, They are somewhat against the grain. Although many mebers do have beards there are such a mix of people that one migh twonder where the morris stereotype could have arisen. By working with this team on the film I think we will have a strong counter to the stereotype we are trying to break down. Also by filming them dancing we will gain a lot of energy to the piece. Their dancing is fast and furious and their music and costume complete the spectacle and will add a real flare to the visuals or our film. here is a short example of them in action.
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The other style we will be foccusing on is Cotswald, This is the style that people will usually imagine when you mention Morris dancing. It also brings with it a negatice stereotyp eof old bearded men with pot bellies swishing hankies around. This is a side to the tradition granted and we do love them all but there is so much more to the cotswald tradition. The two sides we'll be speaking to are, Pecseaten and Five rivers, both young, highly regarded teams from Sheffield. Again as with Boggarts the aim is to appose teh stereo type and tell the story of Modern Morris. Cotswald is probablt the most well known of the traditions. It often involves complicates stepping and intricacy of figures. Also the tradition had been heavily male dominated but now there are more female sides coming into the light. This is a trend that Pecseaten will help us represent, therefore representing the changing face of Morris that has taken place over the last few years. A highly regarded team, talking to them will I feel give us a great insight into the Morris World.
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Also we are working woth 5 rivers Morris another highly regarded team in Sheffield. Again many of their members go against the stereo type.
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This is a very brief summary of what morris dancing is about in order to give what's in my blog some context before the final films are finished.
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