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DANCES

If one declares an interest in folk customs the first question non-folk people ask is, ‘Oh, you mean Morris Dancing and that sort of thing?’ Well, yes and no. Morris dancing may be the most visible ‘custom’ but there are hundreds of other customs, that non-folkies know nothing about unless they happen to have one near them. Another thing they may not realise is that there are several different kinds of morris dancing; Cotswold Morris, North West Morris, Border Morris, Molly Dancing, Derbyshire Morris, Longsword Dancing, Rapper Sword Dancing. Collections would classify sword dancing as a separate tradition though they are all ‘Ritual Dances’ performed in ‘teams’ or ‘sides’, often at specific times of the year, so they all have their showing here. What the world thinks of as morris dancing is ‘Cotswold Morris’ with handkerchiefs and bells. This is hardly surprising since there are hundreds of morris groups around the country, which seem to turn up in numbers at any rural happening in England whether or not morris dancing has anything whatever to do with it.