Morris Dancing in Aid of the RNLI

[NannyFerret]

Chamberlain Square/Birmingham.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bugmeister]

Well done on holding the exposure, white clothing, dark background, sunlight.... <shudder>

 

They are also a very good set of pictures showing the activity, and the concentration as well.  I also really like the first one, that is a real maritime beard

[FUJI]

A fantastic set of pics Nanny............Morris Dancing alway cheers me up, because it is so very English..........my brother is a Chaplin to Sea Cadets in his area.....he has a beard like the one on your first character.

FUJII

[Terry]

Thats a great set Tina. #2 is my fav. Great colour

[NannyFerret]

Thanks Bugs, Fugi and Terry.

I am finding the 35mm lens a lot easier to use than I thought I would.

[ChrisLumix]

Sorry Tina - you've done wonders here, but Morris dancers always make me laugh, 'at' rather than 'with'! 

 

(There were dancers in the Midlands who used to 'black up' - are they still allowed, I wonder?)

[FUJI]

Sorry Tina - you've done wonders here, but Morris dancers always make me laugh, 'at' rather than 'with'!

(There were dancers in the Midlands who used to 'black up' - are they still allowed, I wonder?)

Chris, why do you laugh at an ancient English traditional dance......yet you might stand in wonder at the high stepping very attractive ....Irish dancers, or, those doing the.....Highland Fling in Bonnie Scotlan d......

There was a very good reason for the origins of Morris Dancing, it, helped the peasants and yeoman farmers to celebrate the Seasons and the Harvest,.....it gave the excuse for a knees up and a bit of a feast, never mind a flagon or three of a Golden Nectar or farm produced cider.....there were no telly in they days boor! Please learn about and soak up your traditional past........

Mind you should you want to smile and wonder......please look on YouTube for the......BACUP COCO NUTTERS.......LOVE EM!

SEE HERE..

Come on Martyn and Korky a bit of support please ;-)

[FUJI]

The Bacup Coco Nutters

FUJI

[Korky]

I fully agree, Fooj a great English tradition and one to be proud of.

 

The style of Morris in this video is known as Border Morris - it comes from the English counties that border Wales. Originally, the black faces were used purely as a disguise so that the dancers wouldn't be recognised by employers or clergy.

 

Border Morris in general has a very pagan feel about it and The Witchmen really do give it plenty.

 

Korky

 

[NannyFerret]

We missed the Morris Dancers in Barmouth for the last couple of years, but the last time that I saw them they were still blacking up.

I think Morris dancing is brilliant and after Martyn telling us about clog dancing and then seeing them perform in Kenilworth I love seeing it.
We need things like this to brighten our days and it's great to be able to photograph them in action.
It was an added bonus to our visit to the Library.

[NannyFerret]

         I really enjoyed those videos, Fuji and Korky.

[Martyn]

I'm really enjoying this thread! There are many forms of English traditional dance, they are based around fertility rites, the seasons, agriculture, superstition, poverty, work, story telling, fear, religion, entertainment and more. Many of the dances are peculiar to a certain town or village, or in some cases, certain parts of a village.

 

The victorians and puritans cleaned up a lot of the pagan and fertility dances and re used them for more acceptable purposes such as "rush bearing" where the fresh rushes for the church floor would be transported from the place of harvest to the place of worship. Groups of morris dancers are known as "sides", this gives a clue to the competitive nature of the dance where villages or streets would compete for a prize. There are some villages, particularly in Oxfordshire, where written into the deeds of large houses is the commitment to provide a morris side with a barrel of beer if they dance on your lawn.

 

Anyway, before I get carried away; great pictures!

 

 

 

[ChrisLumix]

Ok ok, perhaps I was a bit hasty! But I was a HUGE fan of Bill Tidy's "The Cloggies" strip in Private Eye in the 70s, and I've never seen Morris men in quite the same light since..

[NannyFerret]

Thanks, Martyn.

 

I am finding this thread interesting too, as there is so much info on the subject as well as the videos.

 

 

Chris, you can be forgiven, as lots of things that I have seen in the past still make me laugh.

[annie]

wonderful set nanny...so colourful and full of fun. i love that guys bow tie..

[NannyFerret]

wonderful set nanny...so colourful and full of fun. i love that guys bow tie..

It was funny, as I couldn't get at my purse to put a donation in the hat, I asked one of the dancers at the end if there was someone who I could give it to, and he answered "Yes, the man in the funny clothes" I was a bit bewildered by that answer, considering they were all wearing funny clothes.

[ChrisLumix]

It was funny, as I couldn't get at my purse to put a donation in the hat, I asked one of the dancers at the end if there was someone who I could give it to, and he answered "Yes, the man in the funny clothes" I was a bit bewildered by that answer, considering they were all wearing funny clothes.

 

Perhaps in his eyes, that was the guy wearing 'normal clothes' !!    

[NannyFerret]

Perhaps in his eyes, that was the guy wearing 'normal clothes' !!    

   They were all very smart. It must have been a job to keep them that clean and white.

We saw them taking the NLNI cabins away.

Hope they do something in Birmingham next year as they were very good.