A fools guide to England 1 - Morris Dancing

The old time British Mayday pastime of Morris of Morris dancing is brought to life on youtube in the first installment of this exciting new documentary. Post your responses.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• fools
• guide
• london
• england
• ofaw
• morris
• dancing
• dancers
• southwark
• bridge
• tate
• modern
• millenium
• blade
• of
• light

[ThePiscean1]

My brother is currently serving 2 years in jail for failing to be in the village green for the "dance". The court would have been lenient but my dear brother had missed the previous one too. He has to do his next dance under supervision in the prison courtyard with his fellow morris inmates.

[smithysrat]

Our laws are cruel. Glad you understood the humour, many didn't.

[tacfoley]

Sir, your commentary is absolute garbage. Little of it bears any resemblance to reality.

The word 'morris' is derived from 'moorish' - a term used to describe any 'outlandish' form of dance or behaviour.

Please refer to the Encyclopaedia Britannica for FACTS about Morris dancing, rather than gp public with your embarrassing balderdash.

tac

[smithysrat]

Thanks for the comment tac. It seems that the category "Comedy" has gone over your head. I am aware that everything said in my commentary was made up on the spot. This video was merely a tongue in cheek jest with my viewers as are the other videos in the series, The outakes where I had to stop myself from laughing are numerous. I apologise for any offence that this may have caused to the Morris dancing community but I hope that most will see it for the joke that it is.

Thanks,

Roland

[jamesfeenstra]

For those interested, the last Canadian prosecution for failing to Morris Dance was I believe May 27, 1931. The 1931 Statute of Westminster absolved citizens of Commonwealth countries, the Dominion of Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, the Irish Free State and the Dominion of Newfoundland, of compulsory Morris dancing. There was a move to make Failure to Morris a crime in the name of the Governor-General but this was narrowly defeated.

[richoxxx]

Jolly good wheeze - I spent 15 years morris dancing; the trick is to do it with six pints on board. Now doing my last 18 months in Strangeways . . .

Graham

[Samua3]

@ThePiscean1 Haha!! That made me laugh loads!! I wish they'd made my brother do that!!

[unomnacajit11]

This is an ancient pre-christian Romanian dance brought to Britain by Dacians incorporated in Roman legions. Search for "Calusari Dance" to see the original version :)))

[TenouHaruka0]

rofl@ at the guy in the weird costume.

[CJWensleydale]

FILA owes you a lot of money mate!..Don'ey make shoos or summink?..

[amedieval]

Amusing intro, decent camera angle, good view of the Wild Worm. Overall, a good video of the dance.

[psviking1]

morris dancing got it's name from moorish dancing, which was brought back to england during the crusades, by the christian army of king richard the lion heart, after they saw the muslim moors doing a similar dance in the holy lands.

[annebolynzarsilve]

@smittypap It always reminded me of the fish slapping dance acctually...

[08vetinari]

Great! There might be people on the continent who believe this ;-)

[john9ten]

My ancestor Juan deRobles sailed with the Sanish Armada. While on that trip, he kidnapped and later married Mathilda Morris. Being a typical barbarian Spaniard, he forbad any of his issue to participate in Morris dancing. Since that time, our family has been pursued all over the world by British agents seeking to bring us to justice.

In haste and in hiding,

John Robles

Somewhere in California