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.  


21 comments:

Susan Heather said...

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.

Cro Magnon said...

A spider in the works! Yes I did comment, but it seemed to come up OK.

Taradharma said...

my 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!

Cro Magnon said...

I had no idea that Morris dancing had reached your shores!

Jean said...

Well said !!
Morris 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 !!

The Owl Wood said...

I love Morris Dancing - it's utterly, utterly incomprehensible to the rest of the planet! Scares the hell out of the natives.

Tom Stephenson said...

Our Morris Dancers in Bath boast a GENUINE black man.

bugerlugs63 said...

They're almost a guilty pleasure.
I would love to stomp around with bells on my ankles . . . Any day of the week!

Kath said...

Interesting you should mention this as we were watching a display of "clog dancing" last night as part of the wool fair celebrations.

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

Oh 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!)
Foot Up and Morris On

Cro Magnon said...

I'd hoped you'd see this. You just have to love those Nutters!

Donna OShaughnessy said...

Oh, 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

Cro Magnon said...

You're right Donna; they'd be superb at a funeral. I must rewrite my will at once!

Kat said...

I would probably go to the pub more often if I had these guys around!

karmanot said...

Absolutely delightful!

John Going Gently said...

those skirts are rather kath kidston

Linda Tunnell said...

I'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.
Oh, and I loved the umbrella in the pool picture, I'll bet that was a surprise!

Starting Over, Accepting Changes - Maybe said...

How can one not smile! Wish we had some of those dancers around here.

Taradharma said...

oh my, yes! they travel all over the western US to conventions...or dance-offs or whatever they're called.

Lady Mondegreen's Secret Garden said...

We 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.

http://ladymondegreenssecretgarden.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/not-so-secret-garden.html

mountainear said...

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.

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