Morris Dancing: Traditional English folk Dance

The word Morris probably derives from the French word morisque, meaning a dance or the dance. The earliest confirmation of a performance of Morris Dancing in England dates from London on 19 May 1448, when Moryssh daunsers were paid 7s (35p) for their services.

At Bampton in the Bush, Oxfordshire, Morris Dancing has been performed without a break for more than four hundred years.

The popularity of Morris Dancing waned into the 19th century, but in 1887 Queen Victoria celebrated her Golden Jubilee with Morris Dancers and it was once more in demand!

Throughout the early 20th century Morris clubs were being formed across Britain. Six of those clubs, or sides as they are called, joined together in 1934 to create The Morris Ring, now the oldest Morris group in England.

Several styles of Morris have developed across England since its revival at the beginning of the 20th Century

The oldest style of Morris is Cotswold in which the dancers have bells tied to their trousers and wave large handkerchiefs. This style originates around Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. It is a very light-footed style as demonstrated in the Bampton Morris Dance video above.

Border Morris comes from the counties bordering Wales, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and part of Gloucestershire. This style has continued the tradition of dancing with blackened faces or masks. The faces are blackened because early dancers on the Border style were coal-miners. This is the style of Morris dancing many people remember with its raucous yells and sticks clashing.

From Lancashire and Cheshire we get Northwest Morris. The costumes are bright and colourful and the dancers wear Lancashire-style clogs. The dance itself tends to be more processional as opposed to ring based.

Cambridgeshire and Essex have given us Molly which tends to be more comedic in focus. The men dress up in work clothes with one man, the molly, dressed as a woman.

Carnival or Fluffy is a women's style of Morris which developed between the wars.