Morris Dancing

My recent trip to Stratford on Avon coincided with a Morris Dancing festival. There were hundreds of brightly clad folk jingling around with their bells on.

Most of the dancers were either on the elderly side or were female. Perhaps its difficult to persuade a new generation of young men to don the bells and take up the hanky? I wonder why?

The black face tradition is from what is known as the Border Morris and has nothing to do with the Black & White Minstrel Show. The folk involved in this did seem to have a much more 'hard-core' approach to the stick clattering, more the pub than the wine-bar, with nary a hanky to be seen.

Here is some footage of a more traditional dance in full flight.