ORION COSTUMES Men's Morris Dancer Fancy Dress Costume

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Clare Sponsler, 'Morris Dance and Theatre History', Thomas Postlewait, Representing the Past: Essays in Performance Historiography (Iowa, 2010), p. 96: John Gough Nichols, Diary of Henry Machyn (London: Camden Society, 1848), p. 13 The dance is for five, and they will often be augmented by the additional characters of Tommy and Betty. The costume worn by the dancers needs to allow for the speed and agility to perform the dance well - hard soled shoes, hoggers (open-ended breeches which were originally worn by miners) and a white shirt are the norm. The Kirtlington Lamb Ale was revived circa 1979 as a morris dancing festival. It is held on the weekend of Trinity Sunday except when this coincides with the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. This is because the Bampton dancers host a similar gathering of morris dancers on that weekend, having transferred to that date when the Spring Bank Holiday was divorced from the feast of Whitsun in 1967. Headington Quarry Morris Dancers have also transferred their traditional appearance in their community from Whit Monday to Spring Bank Holiday Monday. Apart from a few traditional or revived community appearance such as these, morris dancing of the kind exemplified by Headington Quarry and Kirtlington is now most often encountered outside pubs on summer evenings (sometimes with more than one team coming together for a convivial evening); or at folk festivals as 'concert' performances and in workshops to teach the dances. Many teams perform dances from different sources; a handful of teams claim descent from 'traditional' teams, others are revivals of local dances within their original communities. Still others create new styles or new dances within existing styles. Morris dancing in England Part of the costume but not listed separately is a white ribbon woven with purple and gold thread. It bears no obvious relation to the rest of the costume. It is too short to tie around the waist and bears no marks indicating that it may have been fastened to anything else (e.g. the treasury box). Its purpose is unclear. Provenance of the costume Accession Book entry (2) White trousers with bells at knees. Trousers length 1110 mm. Bell pads length 250 mm

Winster and Tidesdale in Derbyshire have dances containing figures similar to North West morris, whilst including characteristics of dances from the South Midlands such as handkerchiefs and shoes. Boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the starting point for the Morris revival. [30] Cecil Sharp was visiting at a friend's house in Headington, near Oxford, when the Headington Quarry Morris side arrived to perform. Sharp was intrigued by the music and collected several tunes from the side's musician, William Kimber, including Country Gardens. [31] A decade later he began collecting the dances, spurred and at first assisted by Mary Neal, a founder of the Espérance Club (a dressmaking co-operative and club for young working women in London), and Herbert MacIlwaine, musical director of the Espérance Club. Neal was looking for dances for her girls to perform, and so the first revival performance was by young women in London. The first reference to Morris style dance comes from the wedding of Raymond Berengar, Duke of Barcelona, and Petronilla of Aragonin 1149. There are further references to continental Morris dances being adopted into church ceremonies and being performed at court events throughout the Middle Ages. It is very likely that these dances were being performed in England at the same time as well, as Morris dance was considered ancient by the Elizabethans.

Molly Dancing

Girls' carnival morris dancing is highly competitive and characterised by precise, synchronous routines with pom-poms (or 'shakers') executed to pop music. It is performed almost exclusively by girls and women in Lancashire, Cheshire and parts of North Wales. [53] Performances typically take place in sports halls and community centres and participants more closely align with British carnival performances such as jazz kazoo marching bands, entertainer troupes and majorettes, than with the morris performances of the folk revival. [54]

The foreman teaches and trains the dancers, and is responsible for the style and standard of the side's dancing. The foreman is often "active" with the "passive" dancers. The Kirtlington version of the dance has been reconstructed from partial information preserved in Cecil Sharp's manuscripts.) Mummers will generally wear a disguise; some traditional Mummers wore elaborate streamers made from wallpaper, rags or newspapers which covered them from head to toe, while others wore a costume to reflect their character.However, as Britain industrialized the dance began to fall out of style. Many young men moved to the factory towns, and were disinclined to continue Morris dancing. Early twentieth-century Morris dancers lamented that the younger generation was too proud to continue the tradition, because it was too much like begging. These young men might have changed their minds as time wore on, but unfortunately, many of those young men lost their lives in World War I.