* Do you enjoy folk music and dance?

* Would you like to combine beer with exercise?

* Are you at peace with your image?

Then you are a prime candidate for Morris dancing!

My own reasons for pursuing this pastime are a logical progression of my enjoyment of music and dance from a very early age. In fact things seem to have gone full circle. We were all taught country dancing at primary school in the 1950's but this became a faded memory through the demands of more laddish activities.

It wasn't until I was 13 when mother sent me for ballroom lessons that I once again found pleasure in dancing. As a teenager in the 1960's patent leather shoes rapidly gave way to suede and crepe or cuban heels and chisel toes as the sole attraction on the dancefloor was now the bevy of young ladies that attended the Saturday night dances. I became the exponent extraordinaire of all the latest steps. Throughout the sixties I strutted my stuff to bands that are now part of rock history. Flower Power at the end of the decade saw us with beards, bandannas and bare feet dancing through a haze of joss stick smoke under the summer stars. The seventies saw a degree of respectability and the advent of Disco. I adapted rather well for an oldy in his mid twenties.

But by the 1980's I had lost track of the music scene and reserved my dancing for weddings and other occasions - much to the embarrassment of my children.

In the late 1980's Sally and I took over a small pub in Walton-on-the-Naze. I had always had an underlying admiration for poetry and folk music. The pride of my record collection is still the original vinyls of the Incredible String Band from my hippy days. During our five years at the pub the Walton Folk Festival rekindled my interest in english folk music. Morris dancers invaded our bars each year, in September, and I ensured that I had enough staff on duty to allow myself time to watch them in admiration of their skill - to say nothing of their nerve and audacity.

By the mid 1990's my children had accepted Dad's eccentricities. In a moment of weakness I agreed to make up the numbers of the legendary Royal Marine Morris. After two years of dancing (or not - as the case may be) I decided to take this pursuit more seriously and joined Harwich Morris Men.

At 53, I am the oldest member of the side but intend to carry on as long as the Squire sees fit to allow me. In the last few years my wife and I have made many friends through our travels to Folk Festivals and other dance venues. If you enjoy music and dance, have a sense of tradition and an even greater sense of humour I can thoroughly recommend Morris Dancing as a hobby. So what is Morris Dancing? There are as many stories of its origins as there are dancers. As an exponent of the art I feel justified to submit my brief knowledge of its history:

You may have heard the stories of pre-christian roots and I'm sure that man has expressed himself in dance as long as he has been able to stand but there is no justification for the roots of the Morris pre-dating the 13th or 14th century.

Some say that the name "Morris" stems from the word "Moorish", the Crusaders having brought the concept of this form of dance back from the East. There are many books written on this subject and there are good arguments in favour of this source. The first guaranteed documentations come from Tudor times when some Vestry accounts quote money being spent on bells for the village Morris Dancers. This raises the question of whether they danced in celebration of christian festivals.

In the 17th century the puritans banned many forms of pleasure including Morris Dancing although the Restoration soon allowed dance to return as part of village life. For the next one hundred years the basic concept was laid down for many of the dances that we know today. There is a strong argument for saying that many dances were rustic interpretations of court dances. Terms used today can find there origins in royal court dances of England and mainland Europe.

The Industrial Revolution started a decline in the English village as an autonomous community and this could have resulted in the disappearance of some Morris sides. Other rural agricultural areas preserved their communities and form the basis of our dance traditions today.

All Morris Men are grateful to Cecil Sharp for documenting the music and dances of England. Without his efforts there was a strong possibility that Morris Dancing could have faded out. However, we sometimes wonder (tongue in cheek) whether the canny yokels may have heard about 'the man from London' who was collecting dances and songs. How many of them were invented for his benefit in exchange for an evening's revellry. No - I'm not that cynical!

The First World War took the lives of many young village men and this depleted many sides.

So Morris Dancing has seen its ups and downs over the centuries but I am pleased to say that there are many sides throughout the world keeping this LIVING tradition alive. We all do the old dances that are the core of our performances. But it is nice to see that most Morris sides have one or two dances that they have invented themselves. It is also nice to see modern interpretation in style such as Royal Liberty or the even more extreme sides that have been seen in very strange garb.

Well, enough of my ramblings about the Morris. Seek it out for yourself and try it.
Wassail!

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