Okay, so this is last week's news, but the Morris Ring, one of the three umbrella organisations for morris dancing, has been proclaiming the imminent demise of morris (see BBC News). It seems that the morris is too embarassing for youngsters, so they don't join in, leaving only old farts who will all be dead soon.
I don't know what the intention of the Ring was with this, I suspect they were trying to stir up interest, but it does make them sound distinctly out of touch. If you go to the website of the side I dance for, Icknield Way and look through the info on the side you will see quite a lot of young dancers. Much of this is due to the fact that the side works with a local scout troup every few years to train up some of their lads, and some of these go on to stay dancing with the main team. And morris can be pretty spectacular when danced by an enthusiastic, energetic, young side.
Of course, our side (and many others, by the sound of it) took this bit of publicity as a golden opportunity to get the local media in and let them know that we are a long way from dying out. Our practice session last week was visited by a photographer from a local paper (I haven't seen the article for that yet) and a fella from a local radio station (listen here), who we had a lot of fun getting involved and showing off to.
The prognosis? Well, I reckon we're not going away yet.
2 comments:
"Morris dancing - the least stealthy of the martial arts." - Now Show 2008
Yeah, that made me chuckle, too. I've been saying for ages that the bells are because we are so deadly that they are needed to give our foes a chance.
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