12 hours ago
Sunday, 19 August 2012
The Sunday Nutters.
A lot of people find Morris Dancing bizarre, or even incomprehensible; I happen to really enjoy it.
Imagine yourself on a warm summer's day, standing outside an old English country pub, pint in hand, watching a bunch of 'nutters' (like the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers above) dancing and cavorting like men possessed.
The garish costumes, the often amateurish music, and the rustic prancing, are all classic Morris men's antics. They don't attempt to be perfectionists; they just have fun, amuse their audience, and finish-up with a few well-earned pints.
Long may they continue.
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I have always enjoyed Morris Dancing as well. Something weird is going on as I got an email t say you had commented on the spider but the comment isn't visible. Apparently it is not venomous but I may have been better to dispose of it. If you click on the link I put there they have a hard life.
ReplyDeleteA spider in the works! Yes I did comment, but it seemed to come up OK.
Deletemy 18 year old step-daughter and her mother have been Morris Dancers for 13 years! It is great fun -- one of my favorite dances is when they use computer key boards instead of sticks, and in the end bash them all on the ground! Crazy!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that Morris dancing had reached your shores!
Deleteoh my, yes! they travel all over the western US to conventions...or dance-offs or whatever they're called.
DeleteWell said !!
ReplyDeleteMorris dancing, well dressings, whitsun parades and steam fairs.....they are all part of my heritage as a country girl and I love them. I can't see them ever stopping. For every person who spends his or her Sunday glued to their i-phone or i-pad, virtually enjoying themselves, thank goodness there are people who don't care how uncool it is to don a silly costume and dance !!
I love Morris Dancing - it's utterly, utterly incomprehensible to the rest of the planet! Scares the hell out of the natives.
ReplyDeleteOur Morris Dancers in Bath boast a GENUINE black man.
ReplyDeleteThey're almost a guilty pleasure.
ReplyDeleteI would love to stomp around with bells on my ankles . . . Any day of the week!
Interesting you should mention this as we were watching a display of "clog dancing" last night as part of the wool fair celebrations.
ReplyDeleteOh you lovely man. It's a strange thing that Morris dancing wells out of ancient traditions and is celebrated for those reasons, but it also inspires the kind of madness that Taradharma describes, a sideways swing at popular culture (there's an awful lot of IT men amongst us!)
ReplyDeleteFoot Up and Morris On
I'd hoped you'd see this. You just have to love those Nutters!
DeleteOh, I want these Morris Dancers at my funeral! Most of my family would love them and those that don't weren't invited to my funeral anyway
ReplyDeleteYou're right Donna; they'd be superb at a funeral. I must rewrite my will at once!
DeleteI would probably go to the pub more often if I had these guys around!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely delightful!
ReplyDeletethose skirts are rather kath kidston
ReplyDeleteI'll have to say of all the dances I've ever seen , this is the only one that I think I could actually do! Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I loved the umbrella in the pool picture, I'll bet that was a surprise!
How can one not smile! Wish we had some of those dancers around here.
ReplyDeleteWe did have hoards of Morris Dancers at Elwin's funeral - I had fun dressing him in his Morris kit for the occasion (a comedy of errors). I couldn't quite let his bells go all the way to the fiery furnace though... They came out of the coffin after the garden party! The link below is for Donna OShaughnessy and pour encourager les autres.
ReplyDeletehttp://ladymondegreenssecretgarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/not-so-secret-garden.html
We have the Shropshire Bedlam hereabouts - and I'm a closet admirer. Rather be on the side of these stick-clattering dancers than not. Good stuff.
ReplyDelete