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Morris dance

Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers in costume, usually wearing bell pads on their shins and/or shoes. A band or single musician, also costumed, will accompany them. Sticks, swords, handkerchiefs, and a variety of other implements may be wielded by the dancers.

Morris dancing first appeared in England in the 15th century. Its earliest surviving mention dates to 1448 and records the payment of seven shillings to Morris dancers by the Goldsmiths' Company in London. The term "Morris" comes from a Flemish form of "Moorish", although Morris dancing has no known historical connection to the Moors.

Three prominent groups organise and support Morris in England: Morris Ring, Morris Federation and Open Morris; all three organisations have members from other countries as well.

There are around 150 Morris sides (or teams) in the United States. English immigrants form a large part of the Morris tradition in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong. There are relatively isolated groups in other countries, for example those in Utrecht and Helmond, Netherlands; the Arctic Morris Group of Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden; as well as in Cyprus and St Petersburg, Russia.

Name and origins
Throughout its history, the Morris seems to have been common. It was imported from village festivities into popular entertainment after the invention of the court masque by Henry VIII. The word Morris apparently derived from "morisco", meaning "Moorish". Cecil Sharp, whose collecting of Morris dances preserved many from extinction, suggested that it might have arisen from the dancers' blacking their faces as part of the necessary ritual disguise.

The name is first recorded in English in the mid-15th century as Morisk dance, moreys daunce, morisse daunce, i.e. "Moorish dance". The term entered English via Flemish mooriske danse. Comparable terms in other languages include German Moriskentanz (also from the 15th century), French morisques, Croatian moreška, and moresco, moresca or morisca in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling Morris-dance first appears in the 17th century. In Edward Phillips's The New World of English Words, first published in 1658, the term morisco was referenced as both "a Moor" and "the Morris dance, as it were the Moorish dance", while John Bullokar defined it in 1695 as "a certain dance used among the Moors; whence our Morris dance".

It is unclear how the dance came to be referred to as Moorish, "unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes", i.e. the deliberately "exotic" flavour of the performance. The English dance thus apparently arose as part of a wider 15th-century European fashion for supposedly "Moorish" spectacle, which also left traces in Spanish and Italian folk dance. The means and chronology of the transmission of this fashion is now difficult to trace; the London Chronicle recorded "spangled Spanish dancers" performed an energetic dance before King Henry VII at Christmas in 1494, but Heron's accounts also mention "pleying of the mourice dance" four days earlier, and the attestation of the English term from the mid-15th century establishes that there was a "Moorish dance" performed in England decades prior to 1494.

An alternative derivation from the Latin 'mos, moris' (custom and usage) has also been suggested.

It has been suggested that the tradition of rural English dancers blackening their faces may be a form of disguise, or a reference either to the Moors or to miners; the origins of the practice remain unclear and are the subject of ongoing debate. In June 2020 the Joint Morris Organisation called for the use of black makeup to be discontinued, in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Groups that used face paint changed to blue, green, or yellow and black stripes.

History in England
The earliest (15th-century) references place the Morris dance in a courtly setting. The dance became part of performances for the lower classes by the later 16th century. Henry VIII owned a gold salt cellar which depicted a Morris dance with five dancers and a "tabrett". A "tabret" is a small tabor drum. On 4 January 1552, George Ferrers, the Lord of Misrule of Edward VI, put on a show in London which included "mores danse, dansyng with a tabret". In 1600, the Shakespearean actor William Kempe Morris danced from London to Norwich, an event chronicled in his Nine Daies Wonder (1600).

Almost nothing is known about the folk dances of England prior to the mid-17th century. While it is possible to speculate on the transition of "Morris dancing" from the courtly to a rural setting, it may have acquired elements of pre-Elizabethan (medieval) folk dance, such proposals will always be based on an argument from silence as there is no direct record of what such elements would have looked like. In the Elizabethan period, there was significant cultural contact between Italy and England, and it has been suggested that much of what is now considered traditional English folk dance, and especially English country dance, is descended from Italian dances imported in the 16th century.

By the mid 17th century, the working peasantry took part in Morris dances, especially at Whitsun. The Puritan government of Oliver Cromwell, however, suppressed Whitsun ales and other such festivities. When the crown was restored by Charles II, the springtime festivals were restored. In particular, Whitsun Ales came to be celebrated on Whitsunday (Pentecost), as the date was close to the birthday of Charles II.

A regional reference occurs in Horsham, Sussex in 1750.

Morris dancing continued in popularity until the industrial revolution and its accompanying social changes. Four teams claim a continuous lineage of tradition within their village or town: Abingdon (their Morris team was kept going by the Hemmings family), Bampton, Headington Quarry, and Chipping Campden. Other villages have revived their own traditions, and hundreds of other teams across the globe have adopted (and adapted) these traditions, or have created their own styles from the basic building blocks of Morris stepping and figures.

By the late 19th century, and in the West Country at least, Morris dancing was fast becoming more a local memory than an activity. D'Arcy Ferris (or de Ferrars), a Cheltenham-based singer, music teacher and organiser of pageants, became intrigued by the tradition and sought to revive it. He first encountered Morris in Bidford and organised its revival. Over the following years he took the side to several places in the West Country, from Malvern to Bicester and from Redditch to Moreton in Marsh. By 1910, he and Cecil Sharp were in correspondence on the subject.

Several English folklorists were responsible for recording and reviving the tradition in the early 20th century, often from a bare handful of surviving members of mid-19th-century village sides. Among these, the most notable are Cecil Sharp and Mary Neal.

Revival
Boxing Day 1899 is widely regarded as the starting point for the Morris revival. 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. 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.

Organisations
In the first few decades of the 20th century, several men's sides were formed, and in 1934 the Morris Ring was founded by six revival sides:

 * Cambridge Morris Men
 * Letchworth Morris
 * Thaxted Morris Men
 * East Surrey Morris Men
 * Greensleeves Morris Men (based in Wimbledon)
 * Oxford Morris (which was not at the initial ring meeting at Thaxted but was influential in the creation of the Ring's constitution).

In the 1950s and especially the 1960s, there was an explosion of new dance teams, some of them women's or mixed sides. At the time, there was often heated debate over the propriety and even legitimacy of women dancing the Morris, even though there is evidence as far back as the 16th century that there were female Morris dancers. There are now male, female and mixed sides to be found.

Partly because women's and mixed sides were not eligible for full membership of the Morris Ring (this has now changed), two other national (and international) bodies were formed, the Morris Federation and Open Morris. All three bodies provide communication, advice, insurance, instructionals (teaching sessions) and social and dancing opportunities to their members. The three bodies co-operate on some issues, while maintaining their distinct identities. An umbrella body that includes all three, the Joint Morris Organisation, organises joint events and discusses issues that affect all members, such as access to both public liability and personal insurance cover.

Morris dancing in Wales
The United Kingdom experienced a revival in folk dancing and Morris dancing in the 1960s. In Wales this meant, in part, a resurgence in interest in the Nantgarw tradition from sides who were looking for Welsh dances to add to their English ones. Cardiff Morris Men began piecing together a Morris dance from the notes that had been written down by Ceinwen Thomas on one particular dance that she called Y Gaseg Eira. After this 'original' dance had been pieced back together sides began to create more dances that were 'in the style of' this traditional Nantgarw Morris dance. Many of these new creations, such as Y Derwydd, are now held to be just as much a part of the Nantgarw tradition as the original dance. Today there are five Morris dances that are commonly recognised as being a part of the Nantgarw tradition. The five dances in the Nantgarw tradition include: Y Gaseg Eira (The Snow Mare), Hela'r Sgwarnog (Hunting the Hare), Ty Coch Caerdydd (Red House of Cardiff), Y Derwydd (The Druid) and Y Goron (The Crown).

There are no hard and fast rules as to which Morris sides can perform dances from a tradition, but the original Nantgarw dance, Y Gaseg Eira, is considered to be a dance for the Welsh sides. Consequently, it is often performed by the sides Isca Morris and Cardiff Morris. It was members of Cardiff Morris who developed the modern Nantgarw dances and so they are the most common performers of these dances.

It has been pointed out that there are "obvious" similarities between the Welsh Nantgarw style of Morris dance and the English Lichfield style of Morris dance. It is known that there were potteries in Nantgarw and these were largely staffed by workers from Staffordshire where Lichfield Morris was danced.

Y Gaseg Eira (The Snow Mare)
This handkerchief dance has a pattern entirely peculiar to itself and was the first Nantgarw dance to see the light of day with the Cardiff Morris. The name of the dance is a Welsh idiom for a very large snowball, and it is so named because at one point in the dance the hand waving movements resemble the movements of somebody rolling a large snowball. This is the original Nantgarw dance and was being danced by Cardiff Morris by 1974. An article in the Welsh Folk Dance Magazine published in 1959 featured an article on this dance along with a photograph of a side performing it.

Hela'r Sgwarnog (Hunting the Hare)
This is the first of three dances which conform to a standard pattern; which can, with a little care, be memorised and need, therefore, no calling. Like Y Gaseg Eira it is a handkerchief dance. The current practise with the music is to use hornpipe time, which lends a lilt to the dance that some people find attractive. It had been added to the Nantgarw repertoire by 1984.

Ty Coch Caerdydd (The Red House of Cardiff)
Sixteen sticks lend a certain weight to the stick bag, if not the proceedings. The sticks are held skiing-fashion (as in downhill, not slalom or cross-country) and are brought up in front of the face to clash. It was being danced by 1984.

Y Derwydd (The Druid)
Previously known as Y Gamel (The Camel) until it was renamed after the tune it is danced to. There are only eight sticks in this dance and no clashing except in the chorus. The dance pattern is identical to that of Hunting the Hare, even down to the half-heys in the chorus, except that the corner figures are completely replaced with Stars. It was put together in 1991.

Y Goron (The Crown)
This is a stick dance based around circular hays.

Nos Galan (New Year's Eve)
This is a processional dance. Unlike the other dances which take place in one location this dance takes the dancers from one place to another. It takes its name from an old Welsh carol, the tune for which was used for the melody of "Deck the Halls".

Figures
The figures can be summarised as Foot Up, Corners Change, Top Hey, Bottom Hey and Circular Hey, with usually a distinctive verse figure unique to each dance.

Steps
There is double step throughout, except when 'chipping' (hopping in one spot whilst simultaneously rotating). The basic pattern is two double steps followed by four capers. There had been a tendency to truncate the second double step and leap straight into the capers, leading to a loss of balance and poise. The hand movements are straight up-and-down, with Adderbury-style circular movements at waist level for the capers. In the 'chipping' sequences in Y Gaseg Eira and Hunting the Hare the arms are raised in turn and in time with the single stepping which accompanies it.

Styles
Today, there are six predominant styles of Morris dancing, and different dances or traditions within each style named after their region of origin.
 * Cotswold Morris: dances from an area mostly in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire; an established misnomer, since the Cotswolds overlap this region only partially. Normally danced with handkerchiefs or sticks to accompany the hand movements. Dances are usually for 6 or 8 dancers, but solo and duo dances (known as single or double jigs) also occur.
 * North West Morris: more military in style and often processional, that developed out of the mills in the North-West of England in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 * Border Morris from the English-Welsh border: a simpler, looser, more vigorous style, occasionally danced with blackened or coloured faces.
 * Long Sword dance from Yorkshire and southern County Durham, danced with long, rigid metal or wooden swords for, usually, six or eight dancers.
 * Rapper sword from the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield, danced with short flexible sprung steel swords, usually for five dancers.
 * Molly dance from Cambridgeshire. Traditionally danced on Plough Monday, they were feast dances that were danced to collect money during harsh winters. One of the dancers would be dressed as a woman, hence the name. Joseph Needham identified two separate families of Molly dances, one from three villages in the Cambridge area and one from two in the Ely area.
 * Ploughstots (alternatively Vessel Cupping and Plew-ladding) from the East and North ridings of Yorkshire, also danced on Plough Monday. The dancers often held "flags", used similarly to handkerchiefs in Cotswold and Border dances to emphasise hand movements, or rattling bones, rather than wearing bells but for the same purpose.
 * A similar Plough Monday tradition exists in the East Midlands; some of these dances involve swords, usually danced over in a similar manner to baccapipes jigs from Oxfordshire.

Cotswold

Lionel Bacon records Cotswold Morris traditions from these towns and villages: Abingdon, Adderbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Badby, Bampton, Bidford, Bledington, Brackley, Bucknell, Chipping Campden, Ducklington, Eynsham, Headington Quarry, Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Ilmington, Kirtlington, Leafield (Field Town), Longborough, Oddington, Sherbourne, Stanton Harcourt, Upton-upon-Severn and Wheatley.

Bacon also lists the tradition from Lichfield, which is Cotswold-like despite that city's distance from the Cotswold Morris area; the authenticity of this tradition has been questioned. In 2006, a small number of dances from a previously unknown tradition was discovered by Barry Care, MBE, keeper of The Morris Ring Photographic Archive, and a founding member of Moulton Morris Men (Ravensthorpe, Northamptonshire)—two of them danceable.

Other dances listed by Bacon include Border Morris dances from Brimfield, Bromsberrow Heath, Evesham, Leominster, Much Wenlock, Pershore, Upton-upon-Severn, Upton Snodsbury, White Ladies Aston, and miscellaneous non-Cotswold, non-Border dances from Steeple Claydon and Winster. There are a number of traditions which have been collected since the mid-twentieth century, though few have been widely adopted. Examples are Broadwood, Duns Tew, and Ousington-under-Wash in the Cotswold style, and Upper and Lower Penn in the Border style. In fact, for many of the "collected" traditions in Bacon, only sketchy information is available about the way they were danced in the nineteenth century, and they have been reconstructed to a degree that makes them largely twentieth-century inventions as well. Some traditions have been reconstructed in several strikingly disparate ways; an example would be Adderbury, danced very differently by the Adderbury Morris Men and the Adderbury Village Morris.

North West
The North West tradition is named after the North West region of England and has always featured mixed and female sides, at least as far back as the 18th century. There is a picture of Eccles Wakes painted in 1822 that shows both male and female dancers.

Historically, most sides danced in various styles of shoes or boots, although dancing in clogs was also very common. Modern revivalist sides have tended more towards the wearing of clogs. The dances were often associated with rushcarts at the local wakes or holidays, and many teams rehearsed only for these occasions. While some teams continue to rehearse and dance for a single local festival or event (such as the Abram Morris Dancers ), the majority of teams now rehearse throughout the year, with the majority of performances occurring in the spring and summer. The dances themselves were often called 'maze' or 'garland dances' as they involved a very intricate set of movements in which the dancers wove in and out of each other. Some dances were performed with a wicker hoop (decorated with garlands of flowers) held above the dancer's head. Some dancers were also associated with a tradition of mumming and hold a pace egging play in their area.

The Britannia Coconut Dancers, named after a mill not far from Bacup, are unique in the tradition, in that they used sawn bobbins to make a noise, and perform to the accompaniment of a brass ensemble. They are one of the few North West Morris groups that still black up their faces. It is said that the dance found its way to the area through Cornishmen who migrated to work in the Rossendale quarries.

Carnival morris dancing shares a parallel history with North West morris dancing but began to evolve independently from around the 1940s onwards. It remains extremely popular with upwards of 8000 current dancers.

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. 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.

In 2005, playwright Helen Blakeman staged 'The Morris' at the Liverpool Everyman, inspired by her childhood experience as a carnival morris dancer. In 2017, an exhibition of photographs taken at a carnival morris dancing competition in Southport by artist, Lucy Wright was presented at Cecil Sharp House.

Border
The term "Border Morris" was first used by E. C. Cawte in a 1963 article on the Morris dance traditions of Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire: counties along the border with Wales. Characteristics of the tradition as practised in the 19th and early 20th centuries include: blackface or coloured facepaint (in some areas), use of either a small strip of bells (in some areas) or no bells at all (in others), costume often consisting of ordinary clothes decorated with ribbons, strips of cloth, or pieces of coloured paper (known as 'raggies'); or sometimes "fancy dress", small numbers of traditional dances in the team repertoire, often only one and rarely more than two, highly variable number of dancers in the set and configurations of the set (some sides had different versions of a dance for different numbers of dancers), and an emphasis on stick dances almost to the exclusion of hankie dances.

Sword dancing
Usually regarded as a type of Morris, although many of the performers themselves consider it as a traditional dance form in its own right, is the sword dance tradition, which includes both rapper sword and longsword traditions. In both styles the "swords" are not actual swords, but implements specifically made for the dance. The dancers are usually linked one to another via the swords, with one end of each held by one dancer and the other end by another. Rapper sides consist of five dancers, who are permanently linked-up during the dance. The rapper sword is a very flexible strip of spring-steel with a wooden handle at each end. The longsword is about 2'6" (0.8 metres) long, with a wooden handle at one end, a blunt tip, and no edge. Sometimes ribbons are threaded through a hole in the tip of the sword, and the dancers grab on to them during the course of the dance. Longsword sides consist usually of five to eight dancers. In both rapper and longsword there is often a supernumerary "character", who dances around, outside, and inside the set.

Mumming
The English mummers play occasionally involves Morris or sword dances either incorporated as part of the play or performed at the same event. Mummers plays are often performed in the streets near Christmas to celebrate the New Year and the coming springtime. In these plays are central themes of death and rebirth.

Other traditions

Other forms include Molly dance from Cambridgeshire. Molly dance, which is associated with Plough Monday, is a parodic form danced in work boots and with at least one Molly man dressed as a woman. The largest Molly Dance event is the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, established in 1980, held at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire in January.

There is also Stave dancing from the south-west and the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance.

Another expression of the Morris tradition is Vessel Cupping. This was practised in the East Riding of Yorkshire until the 1920s. It was a form danced by itinerant ploughboys in sets of three or four, about the time of Candlemas.

Additionally, there is a specifically Welsh version of the art that is distinct from the Borders Morris style. This style is called Nantgarw tradition after a small village in the Taff Valley. One Nantgarw dance, Y Caseg Eira, is derived directly from notes made on traditional Welsh dances from the 1890s. These notes were made by Ceinwen Thomas in the 1950s from the childhood recollections of her mother, Catherine Margretta Thomas. Others are more modern inventions made in the style of older dances. Dances in the Nantgarw style include; Caseg Eira (The Snow Mare), Hela'r Sgwarnog (Hunting The Hare) and Ty Coch Caerdydd (The Red House of Cardiff).

Music
Music was traditionally provided by either a pipe and tabor or a fiddle. These are still used today, but the most common instrument is the melodeon. Accordions and concertinas are also common, and other instruments are sometimes used. Often drums are employed.

Cotswold and sword dancers are most often accompanied by a single player, but Northwest and Border sides often have a band, usually including a drum.

For Cotswold and (to a degree) Border dances, the tunes are traditional and specific: the name of the dance is often actually the name of the tune, and dances of the same name from different traditions will have slightly different tunes. For Northwest and sword dancing there is less often a specific tune for a dance: the players may use several tunes, and will often change tunes during a dance.

For dances which have set tunes, there is often a short song set to the tune. This is sung by the musician(s) or by the whole side as an introduction to the tune before the dance. The songs are usually rural in focus (i.e. related to agricultural practices or village life) and often bawdy or vulgar. Songs for some dances vary from side to side, and some sides omit songs altogether.

Several notable albums have been released, in particular the Morris On series, which consists of Morris On, Son of Morris On, Grandson of Morris On, Great Grandson of Morris On, Morris on the Road, and Mother of all Morris.

Terminology
Like many activities, Morris dancing has a range of words and phrases that it uses in special ways.

Many participants refer to the world of Morris dancing as a whole as "the Morris".

A Morris troupe is usually referred to as a side or a team. The two terms are interchangeable. Despite the terminology, Morris dancing is hardly ever competitive.

A set (which can also be referred to as a side) is a number of dancers in a particular arrangement for a dance. Most Cotswold Morris dances are danced in a rectangular set of six dancers, and most Northwest dances in a rectangular set of eight; but there are many exceptions.

A jig is a dance performed by one (or sometimes two) dancers, rather than by a set. Its music does not usually have the rhythm implied by the word "jig" in other contexts.

The titles of officers vary from side to side, but most sides have at least the following:
 * The role of the squire varies. In some sides the squire is the leader, who speaks for the side in public, usually leads or calls the dances, and often decides the programme for a performance. In other sides the squire is more an administrator, with the foreman taking the lead, and the dances called by any experienced dancer.
 * 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 bagman is traditionally the keeper of the bag—that is to say, the side's funds and equipment. In some sides today, the bagman acts as secretary (particularly bookings secretary) and there is often a separate treasurer.
 * On some sides a ragman manages and co-ordinates the team's kit or costume. This may include making bell-pads, ribbon bads, sashes and other accoutrements.

Many sides have one or more fools. A fool is usually extravagantly dressed, and communicates directly with the audience in speech or mime. The fool often dances around and even through a dance without appearing really to be a part of it, but it takes a talented dancer to pull off such fooling while actually adding to and not distracting from the main dance set.

Many sides also have a beast: a dancer in a costume made to look like a real or mythical animal. Beasts mainly interact with the audience, particularly children. In some groups this dancer is called the hobby.

A tradition in Cotswold Morris is a collection of dances that come from a particular area, and have something in common: usually the steps, arm movements, and dance figures. Many newer traditions are invented by revival teams.

Most Cotswold dances alternate common figures (or just figures) with a distinctive figure (or chorus). The common figures are common to all (or some) dances in the tradition; the distinctive figure distinguishes that dance from others in the same tradition. Sometimes (particularly in corner dances) the choruses are not identical, but have their own sequence specific to the tradition. Nevertheless, something about the way the chorus is danced distinguishes that dance from others. Several traditions often have essentially the same dance, where the name, tune, and distinctive figure are the same or similar, but each tradition employs its common figures and style.

In England, an ale is a private party where a number of Morris sides get together and perform dances for their own enjoyment rather than for an audience. Food is usually supplied, and sometimes this is a formal meal known as a feast or ale-feast. Occasionally, an evening ale is combined with a day or weekend of dance, where all the invited sides tour the area and perform in public. In North America the term is widely used to describe a full weekend of dancing involving public performances and sometimes workshops. In the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, the term "ale" referred to a church- or dale-sponsored event where ale or beer was sold to raise funds. Morris dancers were often employed at such events.

Continuance of Morris tradition
The continuance of Morris is as much in the hands of independent groups of enthusiasts as it is in the nationwide groupings such as The Morris Ring or The Morris Federation. So while for some sides there is a feeling that the music and dance recorded in the 19th century should be maintained, there are others who freely reinterpret the music and dance to suit their abilities and including modern influences. In 2008 a front-page article in the Independent Magazine noted the rising influence of neopaganism within the modern Morris tradition. The article featured the views of Neopagan sides Wolf's Head and Vixen Morris and Hunter's Moon Morris and contrasted them with those of the more traditional Long Man Morris Men. The Morris may have become popular in neopaganism thanks to the scholarship of James Frazer, who hypothesized that rural folk traditions were survivals of ancient pagan rituals. Though this view was fiercely criticized even by Frazer's contemporaries, it was fully embraced by Sir Edmund Chambers, one of the first to produce serious writing on English folk plays and dances, and who became a major influence on popular understanding of Morris dancing in the 20th century.

Age and gender issues
In January 2009 The Telegraph published a report predicting the demise of Morris dancing within 20 years, due to the lack of young people willing to take part. This widespread story originated from a senior member of the more traditionally minded Morris Ring, and may only reflect the situation in relation to member groups of that one organisation.

A survey published in December 2020 identified how the profile of morris dancers had evolved since the first survey published in 2014. The number of morris dancers in the UK had increased from 12,800 in 2014 to 13,600 in 2020. The average age of a morris dancer in the UK was 55, up from 52 in 2014. The survey also reported an even balance between male and female performers by 2020.

Use of the Internet
The advent of the Internet in the 1990s has also given Morris sides a new platform upon which to perform. Many Morris sides now have entertaining websites which seek to reflect the public persona of the individual sides as much as record their exploits and list forthcoming performances.

Morris sides have traditionally raised funds by collecting cash from spectators, but in the post-Covid moves to a more cashless society, many sides now use portable card payment terminals.

There are also a multitude of thriving Morris-related blogs and forums, and individual sides are to be found maintaining an interactive presence on major social networking sites. Surveys in 2021 of use of social media services by morris sides found that the Westminster Morris Men YouTube channel had received over 100,00 views and the Shrewsbury Morris's Twitter account had over 100,000 followers.

In popular culture
The success of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels has seen the entirely invented Dark Morris tradition being brought to life in some form by genuine Morris sides such as the Witchmen Morris and Jack Frost Morris. Dark Morris has been described as having been "evolved from the border revival of the 1970s which was part of a wider neo-traditionalist surge of interest in regional morris styles".

Kit and clothing
There is great variety shown in how Morris sides dress, from the predominantly white clothing of Cotswold sides to the tattered jackets worn by Border teams. Common items of clothing include bell pads, baldrics, braces, rosettes, sashes, waistcoats, tatter-coats (or raggies), knee-length breeches, wooden clogs, hats (straw hats, top hats, or bowlers), neckerchiefs, and armbands.

Namesakes

 * The dance may have given name to the board games three men's morris, six men's morris and nine men's morris.
 * Erasmus Grasser, a German sculptor, created 16 realistic animated wooden figures in the late 15th century called the Morris dancers.
 * Two ships named Morris Dance served in the Royal Navy in the 20th century.

General references

 * Forrest, John (1999). The History of Morris Dancing, 1458–1750. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co.

title: Morris dance


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Talk:Morris dance

Photo copyright?
Not being very high on copyright, even within Wikipedia, are the pictures and their copyright notice canon? --Anders Törlind
 * Not quite sure what you mean, I thought the copyright statement was clear, it belongs to King John's Morris.
 * The idea is, if someone uploads a picture to Wikipedia, it's regarded as released under a GNU Free Documentation License. In other words, from a legal point of view, it seems there's no such thing as simply giving Wikipedia permission to use the photograph, since Wikipedia's contents are freely distributable and modifiable (under the constraints of the GNU FDL).  Ideally, there should be a notice on the King John's Morris page to the effect that the photographs were freely distributable according to the GNU FDL. --LMS
 * OK, I'll remove the photographs for the time being and get them loaded into the wikipedia domain in the approved manner. Bob Waller

Lichfield claims
Also On 2 Jan 2006, User:82.44.68.11 added the following paragraph:

 * The Lichfield "tradition" has little tradition associated with it. In the 1930s and 1940s Morris sides were started at the two major collegiate UK universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The membership of these clubs were some of the brightest of the day (in later years Cambridge could field a side of six Fellows of the Royal Society) who, in common with many such people, had an affinity for intellectual practical jokes. The Lichfield tradition was their invention; as with all the best jokes it gathered so much momentum that the truth could never be openly admitted. Lionel Bacon knew the truth, and was delighted to perpetuate the story.

It seems highly unlikely - I have been around the Morris for twenty years and know plenty of people] whose acquaintance is much longer, and I have never heard a breath of this idea. It seems much more like a post-modernist joke. But I can't rule it out.

I can however rule it inadmissable in Wikipedia on ground of verifiability so I removed it about 3 hours later.

Today, User:129.67.116.93 has added a weaker version of the same claim: 'Research has shown that the Lichfield tradition may also have been devised in the mid 20th century.', but still with no references at all, so I removing this as well.

If somebody out there has evidence for the claim, please reference it. If not, the claim even if true has no place in an encyclopedia. SeeVerifiability--ColinFine 22:35, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

 * Here's a reference: R. Judge, "The morris in Lichfield", Folklore, vol. 103, no.2 (1992), 131- 159. Judge calls into question the authenticity of the source materials.  Some researchers believe it's more or less proven the Lichfield dances were created by one individual in (if I recall correctly) the 1950s; others still dispute this.  I find Judge's article interesting but am not fully convinced one way or the other.  In any case the above claim that Lichfield was invented as a joke that Bacon and many others were in on is very different from the case Judge makes, so if there's any truth to it, evidence would have to come from another source. -- Rsholmes 17:35, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Capitalization
The capitalization needs to be made consistent in the article. Unfortunately there is disagreement on the subject. Many people like to capitalize the word "morris". I fail to understand why; it's not a proper noun in this case -- though I think it likely it derives from a proper noun ("Morisco"). The OED entry has it uncapitalized, though many of the examples it quotes capitalize it, and I would advocate following the OED. In any case, this article is about the only place I've ever seen "dance/dancing" capitalized ("There are English records mentioning the Morris Dance..."). At the very least I believe "dance/dancing" should be uncapitalized. -- Rsholmes 17:43, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I certainly won't object if you make it consistent! ColinFine 17:10, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The common useage around the San Francisco Bay Area is to always capitalize Morris. I don't presume that such local usage is necessarily globally correct, but it is a data point.  Georgewilliamherbert 19:49, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Here in Michigan, I always see Morris capitalized. Kestenbaum 19:56, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

I have to amend my comment about the capitalized D: it's seen also on the Morris Ring's web site, e.g. Information about Morris Dancing. However... that page also features strange (to me) capitalizations like "the Court masques"; "Morris Sides". I think they just like capitalizing things. The same seems to be true of Open Morris (e.g. "the other two Morris Organisations"). The Morris Federation does not capitalize morris. (Or dancing, sides, or organizations.) In my experience capitalization of "morris" has little to do with geography; some people do it, some don't, and it bears more relationship to who they communicate with than where they live. Kind of like "its" versus "it's". I feel uncomfortable with capitalization, because I don't think a case can be made that it's a proper noun; and I don't think most people capitalize types (as opposed to names) of dances, e.g. flamenco, disco, swing, etc., so capitalized "Morris" seems to me inconsistent. Nevertheless, it is common -- as is uncapitalized. -- Rsholmes 21:45, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

 * Are you sure it's not a proper noun? It seems to be a clear and distinct thing.  It's a subset of dancing, but I think that even the articles Swing are consistently upper case, flamenco is mixing upper and lower, disco is consistently lower other than at the start of a sentence.  Is there any info from the Dance article improvement project on preferred caps scheme?  Georgewilliamherbert 22:15, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I had the exact argument over English Country Dance some years ago on Wikipedia. Some people think it's essentially a proper noun, some don't. But we all know that everyone who uses "it's" as a possessive is simply wrong ;-) Greg 04:46, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree with the first statement in this section, and note that the predominant usage in this article now is uncapitalized, and the article says, "it is not a proper noun." Since that's also good enough for the OED and Merriam-Webster.com and the Random House Unabridged Dictionary and dictionary.cambridge.org, I figure that's good enough--and about time--to warrant the change, which I've now done. I tried to retain caps where the word is part of a proper noun or title. This is also consistent with the usage in the Swing (dance) article, which treats, e.g., "West Coast Swing" as a proper noun and uses lower case for the generic usage in "Many swing dancers today..." (that article, however, does also have some inconsistencies in caps usage). Rich Janis 11:15, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Hoberdidance
I removed this:
 * Hoberdidance or Hobbididance was the name of a bad sprite associated with the morris dance. Its name is from Hob, an old name for the Devil.

for two reasons: first, it doesn't belong in the "styles" section, and second, it needs verification -- I've never heard of this sprite, in or not in conjunction with morris dancing. -- Rsholmes 18:04, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

Duns Tew
Some members of the Berkeley (California) Morris, in the late Eighties when my then wife was active, danced in a synthetic composite style named arbitrarily for a village, Duns Tew, that sits between the places from whose traditions the style was derived. I don't know whether this was a Berkeley thing or what. —Tamfang 17:37, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * "Duns Tew" was a style invented under the direction of Tim Radford, who was then with the Adderbury Morris Men and Kirtlington Morris. I believe there was a "Duns Tew" team in England for a while, and that the style has been danced by Red Herring Morris of Boston, MA among others.  I don't see this as a particularly necessary thing to mention in the article, though. Rsholmes 20:11, 28 March 2006 (UTC)

 * My understanding was that Tim Radford introduced it in a series of workshops he taught at Sidmouth. His topic was similarities and differences between traditions, and to illustrate this he concocted a tradition with elements of Adderbury, Bucknell and Kirtlington. Duns Tew is roughly in the centre of the triangle formed by these three, and apparently there is a record that there was dancing at Duns Tew, so he applied the name. This must have been about 1987 or 88 I guess. Quite a number of Open Morris sides dabbled in it for a bit, and Tony Forster set up Yaxley Morris to dance solely Duns Tew. ColinFine 23:50, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Just to further flog a deceased equine. . . I was on Red Herring (when it was Lemon and Capers) and learned Duns Tew as my first morris tradition from Rebecca Jordan. To date, I know of a number of teams (Goat Hill Morris in San Francisco and Squash Beetle in Lexington KY, as well as Red Herring) who dance it in the states.  Zero sharp 23:26, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

 * OK, we're down to flaying the poor late quadruped, but my recollection is that it was created as part of the workshop process. There is a record of dancing at Duns Tew, but no record of what it looked like.  Accordingly, Mr. Radford and his workshop participants decided to construct something by drawing from the three named traditions that surround the village.
 * Of the styles/traditions I've danced (Lemon&Capers-style style Bampton, Duns Tew, and Border), I think I liked it the best, although Border comes a close second.
 * /morethananyonecaresabout
 * (off to ponder who zerosharp might be
 * Septegram 20:36, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Added | link to Duns Tew information Septegram 20:44, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Căluşari etc.
I've removed this:

 * A possibly related dance is also practised in Barcelona, Spain, where it is performed by girls or women.

 * The traditional Căluşari dance of Romania resembles morris in many ways and some believe that the Romanian dance is the ultimate origin of the Morris Dance, brought from Dacia to western Europe via the Celts or the Goths. The etymology could also be explained in this way: the root word is the Romanian word "morişcă", which means "little mill", and it refers to the circular movements of the dance. It was then corrupted into Morisque, Morrisk, Moriscas, Morris.

Reasons: (1) There are numerous dances from many places that share some features with some types of morris. In few if any cases are there any known connections with morris. If this subject is to be addressed, it ought to be addressed more completely. Furthermore, it is peripheral to an understanding of morris so does not belong in the first few paragraphs of this article. (2) There is a lot of speculation and little verification here, and in the linked discussion. Who are these "some" who believe Căluşari is ancestral to morris? Is there any historical evidence for it? Is there any basis for the stated etymology? Has Căluşari historically been referred to as "morişcă"? Note by the way the claim that Căluşari and morris have a point of similarity in the use of staves/sticks is spurious, since for the first ~300 years of recorded morris history in England there is no mention of stick dances -- sticks seem to have been adopted somewhere around the turn of the 18th century. -- Rsholmes 17:48, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

 * Hooray. I've been unhappy about this stuff being in the article since I first read it, but I never felt bold enough to remove it myself. ColinFine 23:35, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

I am surprised that in all these references to the origins of these dances there are no remarks concerning their essentially Arab origins.The fact is that both these dances and music -with the neccessary Arab instruments the drum and tambour etc were brought back from Palestine and other Arab-Moorish places by the Crusaders. All the dances of the entire area of Rumania Turkey Greece Israel and elsewhere are essentially the same while the Arab music survives in Irish Scottish and other wrongly called Celtic musical forms (the Celtic culture having long been superceeded when they arrived in Europe.

I have watched in North Africa identical dances to Morris dances.These use sticks - and I dispute the idea that sticks were not used from the beginning as the dances represent a ritualised form of aggression- the original Bedouin  dances begin with a jug of water being placed on the ground and the two sides then approach -it being a ritualistic "fight" over this jug

It is sad that the interesting Arab origins of wrongly called Celtic folk music and English Morris dancing are not clearly presented  - though of course the Arab connection is not very fashionable at the present time - unsigned Anon

 * [Please sign your posts with four tildes ~ ]
 * If you have reputable published sources for these claims, please present them, and the matter can be debated. If not, your claims have no place in Wikipedia.
 * It must be admitted that much of the Morris dance article suffers from lack of sources (and I myself perpetrated some of it before I understood the pillars of Wikipedia - but I haven't got suitable references to add).
 * But your claim is highly unorthodox, and requires an unusual level of support. --ColinFine 16:05, 21 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Probably because it is not Arab in origin, at least not exclusively. Think of how European, African and Middle-Eastern cultures blended in Sicily during Dark Ages period of the Middle Ages, each adding their portion to music, dance, et al. It's more than probable that these blended influence made its way to Italy, and the rest is history, as the article relates.50.111.41.216 (talk) 19:08, 7 April 2018 (UTC)

Terminology
For the section at the bottom: I've heard the terms "side" and "team" used not quite interchangeably - a "team" is a group of dancers that practices and tours together, and may be any number, while a "side" is a particular number (usually six, at least in Cotswald Morris) that gets up to do a dance. I'll look for any references and if there's no further discussion soon I'll edit this.Phaither 00:38, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Though now I notice that a similar note is made in the entry below ('set' and 'side') Hmm. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Phaither (talk • contribs)
 * While the usage may not be universal, I think it is not at all uncommon for people to use "side" in both senses. I believe "side" is used as a synonym for, and in preference to, "team" more often in England than in the US.  Google for "morris side" for numerous examples. By the way, it's "Cotswold". Oh, and I guess "Cotswold morris" needs to be added to that page! -- Rsholmes 01:10, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Morris Festivals - Contemporary forms
I have added a link to my video of Morris at the Sweeps festival 1997. Should there be a section on Festivals of Morris dancing like the Sweeps? Szczels 14:45, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

Pauliteiros de Miranda
Hey there. Do you know that something resembling morris dancing to the point where coincidence is quite implausible occurs in Miranda do Douro in Portugal? It's called Pauliteiros

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=czBkkTuA1dM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.22.78.249 (talk) 00:09, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

It's uncannily similar:

"Pauliteiros are the practitioners of war dance characteristic of the Land of Miranda, called the dance of the sticks , representative of local historical moments accompanied with the sounds of the harmonica, dulcimer , drum and box and also has the distinction of being danced by eight men ( more recently also danced by women) who wear skirt and embroidered linen shirt, a vest, brown leather boots, socks, wool and hat can be decorated with flowers and finally by two sticks (palos) with which these dancers are a series of different steps and coordinated movements."

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauliteiros_de_Miranda

217.43.154.238 (talk) 14:15, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

From Ritual to Romance
Someone just added a link to the Project Gutenberg version of this book. I suggest removing this link. This book is extremely outdated, presenting a theory of morris dancing that is now thoroughly discredited; and (unlike e.g. Sharp's Morris Book) is not a significant enough contribution to the morris literature to merit mention. -- Rsholmes 03:08, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Verifiable?
What's a source for verification of the statement
 * While all styles are danced today by male, female, and mixed sides, the majority of female sides appear to dance North West dances.

(Also, "appear to dance North West dances" is perhaps not the most felicitous choice of phrasing!) -- Rsholmes 02:21, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

 * Not at all sure that I agree with that one - just thinking through the local female sides in this neck of the woods; of the ones that I can think of off the top of my head, I'd say that, if anything, there are slightly more Border teams than any other style. --Tailkinker 07:47, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

 * The problem of course is that one's neck of the woods may not be -- or may not not be, if you follow me -- representative of the morris world as a whole. I suspect, for instance, the style/sex statistics are quite different for the UK, the eastern US, and the western US, for instance.  So a statement like the above needs to be based upon either a global consensus of personal observations, or on surveys of teams worldwide.  I don't know that either is available; but perhaps I'm overlooking something. -- Rsholmes 13:17, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

 * You're right. I was generalising from local experience - all the female sides I can think of in W Yorks are NW sides. (I did have a look whether I could find anything to back it up, but without success). It was a reaction to the previous change about women performing NW in dresses or skirts: I thought the previous addition was inappropriate, but wanted to find something to replace it with rather than just revert it. I've now removed the offending sentence, and just added a general statement about sex in the introduction.

 * I'd like to see a section about costume, including the correlations with style and sex (eg Cotswold mainly in either white trousers or dark britches, even for many female Cotswold dancers, whereas most female NW sides in my experience wear skirts or dresses), but I don't know if there are enough references for it. ColinFine 18:16, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

The article has too much of a bias towards Cotswold Morris for my liking. The North West tradition is very different, and has always featured mixed and female sides - at least as far back as the eighteenth century. There is a picture of Eccles Wakes, painted in the 1820s by the style of dress of some of the participants and spectators, that clearly shows both male and female dancers.

In Lancashire, the tradition was taken up by sides associated with mills and nonconformist chapels, usually composed of young girls. These lasted until the Great War, after which many mutated into 'jazz dancers'. (You can see a Bolton troop in one of Humphrey Jennings's pre-war documentaries.) They later evolved into 'pom pom' dancers (still called 'morris dancers' by older people). During the folk revival in the 1960s, many of the old steps to dances such as 'Stubbins Lane Garland' were often passed on by old ladies in their seventies! --193.60.165.65 16:04, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, please go ahead and redress that balance. The material I've contributed to the article has mostly been on Cotswold, because that's what I know. ColinFine 22:54, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Fluffy/Carnival morris
Hi, there are some mistakes (in terminology really) over the developments of traditional Northwest Morris into what gets called here "Pom Pom dancing" (erroneously).

These teams are often described as "Fluffy Morris" a term that seems to be accepted by some, but disliked by others. Another common term is "Carnival Morris". They took up the use of pom poms in their kit, but I have never heard or seen an instance of them describing themselves as "Pom Pom Dancers". The term is quite definately "Morris Dancers". A brief trawl around the web would quickly confirm this. It is not confined to a few older people; "Morris" is a term invariably used to describe the tradition.

The term "Pom Pom dancers" would seem to be a term used to describe American style cheerleader dancers at sports events etc. This is probably where Morris Dancers "borrowed" their pom poms from.

Try these web pages:

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Performing_Arts/Dance/Morris_Dancing/Carnival/

http://www.morrisdancers.net/troups.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/nemdco/

Be prepared for some websites as colourful (!) as their dance costumes though :-)

Ecadre 01:44, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

 * It's been a while, and I'm now back to change the details here. I'm going to change the wording to reflect the fact that these Morris teams still overwhelmingly refer to what they do as Morris Dancing (not pom pom) Ecadre (talk) 21:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Verifiable (more generally)
I'm pleased to see Train guard's addition about North west, but it exacerbates a problem we already have: the article is full of unsupported statements. I started putting tags on the new material, but realised there would be loads of them; then I contemplated putting a  tag on the whole article, but the problem is not that it doesn't cite any sources, but that it contains so many claims that are not supported: some of them are doubtless verified in some of the works cited, but there aren't particular references; others, I'm sure, are supported in none of the references. I was thinking of this in particular for some remarks in the new North West material (eg the picture of the Eccles Wakes, the uniqueness of the Britannia's, and the 'It is said' about the role of Cornishmen).

This is not just in the new section: I have perpetrated plenty of stuff in this article from my own knowledge; but as it stands this is really not an article of any sort of Wikipedia standard.

Anybody got any suggestions how we can turn it into a good article? Or is it in fact that much of the stuff we want to say in it actually unverifiable? I don't know.

--ColinFine 23:10, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

Northwest Morris and clogs
It states in the article that Northwest Morris was always danced in clogs. This is NOT true. See this study for more details:

http://www.crimple.demon.co.uk/clogshoe.htm

Ecadre 02:08, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Edited this in AJ Letson (talk) 17:47, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

 * I've edited the article to make this point clearer and to change the statement that "The dancers originally wore clogs".

 * The citation, the article and research I mentioned, however, demonstrates precisely the opposite of the statement in the article. ie.  most historical teams did not wear clogs (though many did) and there has been a tendency in revival teams (ie. newer teams) to wear clogs.

 * I've changed the wording accordingly. Ecadre (talk) 21:05, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Corrections
Changed the name "Royal Britannia Cocoanutters" to the correct name "Britannia Coco-nut Dancers". See http://www.coconutters.co.uk/ Ecadre 02:18, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Necessity of a Discography?
How accurate can a discography on a type of dance be? We don't have a discography for ballet, rhumba, or disco, so why for morris dancing? Bifgis 04:40, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Because music specifically for morris dancing is not in great supply. Ballet music is a well-recorded subset of the classical repertoire. Rumba and disco grew out of commercial pop music. Additionally, because specific dances are danced to specific tunes (unlike most modern popular dances like rumba or disco), a rescurce to find recorded versions of particular tunes is valuable. As a traditional genre, source recordings tend to be obscure. That said, the discography here is pretty pitiful... come on folka!--Natcase 05:02, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree that the discography is inappropriate. It only gives titles, so is not even especially useful for finding the music. Id imagine that there are Morris sites with more complete, accurate and useful lists. Ive marked this article on my watchlist to look at cleaning it up. I will remove the discography at that time (unless someone removes it before then or can say why it should be kept). Metao 04:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

 * Yes, the discography is fairly useless. Perhaps if there were a separate article on morris music (and why not?) some mention of some of the most important recordings would be appropriate, but inevitably these things degenerate into midden heaps of every recording ever made. -- Rsholmes 14:29, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

 * For Cotswold there's a useful resource at http://www.themorrisring.org/more/Tunes/index.html and also at http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/morris/music/abclib.html -- Alec.brady 12:10, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Morrison (surname)
I have been told that the surname Morrison comes from morris dancing - people would go into towns to participate or observe, and some of the girls would come home pregnant. Boys conceived during this time were called "morris sons" - "Morrison". The man who told me this has the surname Morrison, and is also something of a linguist, so I think that he is correct, although I really don't know for sure. If anyone can verify this, I think it would be quite interesting to include somewhere.

 * It's fascinating how what some writers call etymythology always ignores the perfectly obvious explanation and chooses a far-fetched but romantic one. I don't actually know that the story is a fantasy, but I would lay money that it is - because 'Morris' is a perfectly ordinary name!

In the absence of strong documentary evidence I would say 'Morrison' means 'son of (somebody called) Morris.

Men and Women (again)
I've partly backed out 81.137.115.100's changes about male and female sides, and the arguments over them. Partly, I've removed the statement that the arguments 'still continues somewhat today', because in my experience it doesn't. (Since the statement, like most of the article, is unsourced, it may come down to different people's experience anyway). Secondly, I've removed the statement that 'the overwhelming majority of sides [remain] traditionally all-male'. This also doesn't coincide with my experience, and here I have something to back it up. I did a quick count on a couple of counties on http://morrisdancing.wikia.com/wiki/Morris_teams_in_United_Kingdom, and got Of course it's possible that these are, by coincidence, unrepresentative, and elsewhere there really is an 'overwhelming majority' of male sides. But I rather doubt it. I picked W Yorkshire because I know most of the sides there, but I picked E Sussex at random (and had to look at their websites to find out the sex of most of the sides there). --ColinFine 19:33, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

>>>> I have deleted the line stating that before the 1970'morris was just a male thing. More than a bit controversial and not reflecting the true position at the beginning of the 1900’s. I intend to add a little with respect of the teaching work done by Mary Neal and Florrie Warren especially in the counties of the UK and their influence on USA thinking.

I would also like to add some comment (with out being too controversial) on the determined opposition to women dancing that the Ring maintained right into the 1980’s – or do we think it is still to soon for this story to be told???? --John Lewis 12:51, 7 April 2007 (UTC)siweljohn 7th April 2007

 * I certainly heard from enough people about the Ring not 'allowing' or
 * endorsing' women dancing morris when I first started out in the mid 90s,
 * but it was just anecdotal. If it were to be included in this article, it
 * would need to be well sourced (like a statement from the Ring itself if one
 * can be found). I do think that, if sourced and verified, it is notable and
 * should be mentioned in the article.
 * Zero sharp 19:49, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

With repect of the Ring and woman dancing before the mid 1980's I will do a little research to see if a nutral addition can be appropriatly made with references. --John Lewis 17:35, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

video?
I inadvertently deleted a video of Morris dance from my camera. Can anybody provide such for Wikipedia? Cheers. – Kaihsu 15:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I've uploaded several to YouTube, if that's of any use.  Can be found here (men dancing), here (women dancing) or here (a mixed dance).  --Tailkinker 16:01, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I still have the original footage as well, if YouTube isn't of much use. --Tailkinker 16:02, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

I would like Wikimedia Commons to have videos licensed under a Creative Commons licence or GFDL (or even public domain). Cheers. – Kaihsu 16:09, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * And how is that achieved? --Tailkinker 17:15, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Someone who owns a video can upload it there, following instructions. – Kaihsu 18:24, 10 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Does having uploaded it to YouTube prevent me from uploading it there as well? --Tailkinker 19:49, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

If you do own the copyright for the video, I don't think having uploaded it to YouTube prevents you from uploading the same to Wikimedia Commons. – Kaihsu 09:54, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I have now added a video. – Kaihsu (talk) 13:48, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Introductory paragraphs
I'm reluctant to steam in and alter anything - I've only just signed up here - but I thought I'd raise these points/observations.

1. As far as I know, the only Morris dance involving tobacco pipes is Bacca Pipes which involves dancing over the pipes rather than "wielding them" as "implements". If that is actually the case (hopefully someone here can confirm or deny it) that sentence will need revising.

2. "There are claimed to be English records mentioning the morris dance dating back to 1448, but these are open to dispute."

The records being referred to here are I assume these:

1. Item to the Moryssh dancers (from the accounts of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths (London) 1448.

2. An inventory of Caistor Castle in Norfolk dated 13th of October 1448 describing a tapestry that depicts a "Morysk" dance.

Both of which are mentioned in the postscript to John Cuttings 2005 book History And The Morris Dance. How far open to dispute these references are is itself debatable. The variant spellings of Morris/Moresco/Moorish would, if this is purely a case of uncertainty over the words, render most of the early references to Morris similarly debatable.

Prior to their discovery, the earliest reference was believed to be found in a will from 1458 (describing silver cups decorated with "moreys dauncie"). This still makes the assertion that there are no references to Morris before the "late fifteenth century" unsatisfactory. Perhaps "mid" might replace "late"?

The way that the paragraph on the Moresco dances reads in light of the above seems to suggest that Morris began in Spain in 1492 - some 40 odd years after it had been recorded in England. That might need looking at!

There is also a theory (proposed by Cutting and quite persuasive given the variety of activities covered by the term in Spain, Portugal, and England) that Moresco/Morisco itself was merely a colloquialism imported to England meaning "traditional" and applied to already existing dance forms and activities (such as mumming) rather than a specific dance. Given the uncertainty of the origins of Morris it might be prudent to offer this theory - alongside any other alternative theory - alongside the "Moorish dancing" theory. Emperor Of Lancashire 15:54, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

The same kind of dances appear in Portugal: In Galicia and Cataluña, in Spain, there are similar dances. (  About the dances having some connection with the moors we need to know what kind of moors. In Portugal  there are two kind of moors (mouro), the ones from north Africa and a magic people of pre-roman origin. The magic moors built the ancient burial monuments, the dolmens and standing stones in Portugal (probably from celtic *marwo (dead)) and have castles under the earth. The ladies have long golden hair (some have black hair like the night),transform into snakes, are guardians of lakes treasures and fountains and some live inside stones. The dolmens are called house of the lady moor. Some look like very small ants ( celtic *morwi). They are considered ancient pre-Roman gods or goddesses (celt or iberian). In the UK the Maol Mor Stone Circle,Clach Mhor,Muirheadston,Stanton Moor Cairns, also got nothing to do with the moors from N. Africa. ) There is an international festival
 *
 *
 *

News article on morris dancing
Just saw this news article about morris dancing and thought I would pass it on to folks here. Use it as you see fit. -- Low Sea (talk) 12:45, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Cheesing
I have removed the following very amusing para on the assumption that it's a joke! ''This variation on the classical theme involves the participants chasing barrels of cheese as they run, often a fine brie, due to it's weight and consistency. It was perfected in World War I, when poor villagers would chase rats in cheese, whilst they were participating in Morris dancing. They continued to do it after rationing ended and remained popular right into the late 1980's, where they would instead chase car tires. The traditional regalia was a green 'Hulk' suit, due to the fact that the cheesing goes late into the night and participants must be able to see each other clearly. Although the popularity has declined in recent years, Cheesing remains a well loved and classic variation of Morris dancing that will forever be remembered as unique and enjoyable.'' Adrian Pingstone (talk) 17:54, 8 July 2008 (UTC)

External Links Section
What shall be the criteria for including links to specific sides' sites in the 'External Links' section? Please note, I am not (yet) objecting to the in/ex-clusion of any particular side so far, but absent any guideline [above and beyond 'notability' -- but how shall that apply here?] there seems to be nothing to stop it becoming a directory of all Morris sides in the known Universe. Zero sharp (talk) 14:27, 8 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I quite agree, and was going to raise this very same concern after seeing two more links were added recently. I am in no position---either geographically or in terms of knowledge---to say which sides are notable and which are not, but surely some standard must exist by which to make such a judgment.  Otherwise, as Zero sharp has quite correctly stated, the external links section runs the risk of "becoming a directory" of all the sides in existence.  This cannot be allowed to occur. ---  RepublicanJacobite  The'FortyFive'  23:54, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

 I previously added a new section for Morris Dancing in Popular Culture, however it has since been deleted. I can't recall the reasoning for why it was deleted, but I cited it being noted in the 2nd and 6th episode in the first Blackadder series, as well as it being a central theme to the Men Without Hats music video, "Safety Dance" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7movKfyTBII Christopher, Salem, OR (talk) 06:26, 19 December 2011 (UTC)

Border section
In the pursuit of balance I would look to amend this section. Shropshire Bedlams were both the innovators and leaders of the border resurgence in the late 1970's and should be recognized as such. I have never heard the term "neo-border" used has anyone else? Unless a forthcoming authoritative reference is produced I will amend. John Lewis (talk) 19:25, 25 August 2008 (UTC) Further to my comment above I have deleated the term neo-border John Lewis (talk) 21:05, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Baile de bastones
It might be an idea to link to the Spanish Wikipedia article http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baile_de_bastones. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.46.108.163 (talk) 23:50, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

New article on Morris Dancing
I just added a page on Icknield Way Morris Men, it'd be great if the Morris experts here could review it and improve the page :-). Thanks, Iamleeg (talk) 08:20, 23 April 2010 (UTC)

Molly dancing
The largest Molly Dance event is the Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, established in 1980, held at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire in January. 1980? I think not. It was revived in Whittlesey in 1980 having died out some time in the early 20th century. --Ef80 (talk) 00:30, 7 June 2011 (UTC)

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Proposed merge of Joint Morris Organisation into Morris dance
not enough sourcing for the JMO as a standalone article - makes better sense in the context of UK morris dance organisation. Ingratis (talk) 14:10, 5 July 2020 (UTC)
 * , support. From a brief Google search, there does appear to be some coverage, so perhaps it'll be ready for its own page someday, but for now it's better to redirect it here and build up this page. {{u| Sdkb  }}  talk 18:14, 7 October 2020 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 10:02, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

See also link to blackface
, please have a read of the lead to blackface and also the section Blackface (and for that matter note that WP:BRD only has one "R" in it). The lead states that: "The term is also used in reference to black makeup which is worn as part of folk traditions and disguising, not all of which [emphasis added] are perceived as or originated as racial stereotypes of black people" which I would suggest makes it clear the subject is not simple. Turning now to the detailed section: So, I make that 3 cases of disguise, 3 cases of blackening due to the nature of labour, 1 case of oppression remembered, 1 case of ancient tradition historical unrelated to race (but with added overtones expunged). That leaves one solitary case of racial stereotyping, since discontinued. To describe this collection as "targeted racialized practice" is frankly laughable. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 06:57, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * § 50.21.1 ¶1 – Refers to blacking one's face as a disguise for poaching.
 * § 50.21.1 ¶2 – Disguising for rioting.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶1 – OK, here is a racial steroetype, a Turkish slaver. In the current climate I doubt that many would object to a slave-taker, slave-trader and slave-master being portrayed in a bad light by the descendants of his victims.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶2 – Mentions a spurious controversy.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶3 – Disguised dancers and mischief makers.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶4 – Coal miners have black faces (hint: coal is dusty and black).
 * § 50.21.2 ¶5 – Ancient (at least 1500 years old) pagan festival, with it is to be noted a 19C corruption, now expunged.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶6 – If you climb up inside sooty chimneys you end up covered in soot.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶7 – Medway Sweeps Festival, see preceding.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶8 – OK, here at last is a genuine example of "targeted racialized practice", but it was abandoned three years ago, well before the current protests.
 * § 50.21.2 ¶9 – Insensitive political correctness.
 * Looking at the lead of blackface, it begins Blackface is a term which is used to describe a form of theatrical make-up which is predominantly used by non-black performers in order to represent a caricature of a black person. It's only after that, in a also used in reference to mention, that we come to the part you quoted. I still just don't think there's enough of a connection between morris and blackface for it to be a useful see also link, and the fact that it's already discussed and wikilinked in the body is a further argument against a see also link. Additionally, I think the discussion of black face paint in this article is probably given WP:UNDUE weight as is—it shows up more because it's a fiery controversy that's been covered in the media, but it's not actually a huge aspect of the morris tradition. {{u| Sdkb  }}  talk 07:07, 8 October 2020 (UTC)
 * You're quite wrong. Stand in the street and watch a large morris/folk festival and a significant minority of the sides are blacked.  There was an attempt a few years ago by Medway Council to ban blackface using the same faulty logic you propose, but fortunately facts and tradition won out.  Yes, the situation is "fiery" at the moment as you put it, but that is all the more reason to step back and check facts, not rush on deleting anything not conforming to the fashion of the moment. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 07:22, 8 October 2020 (UTC)

Good source
The New York Times just ran a feature about morris dancing, which would be a high-quality source if anyone is looking to improve/expand this article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/15/arts/dance/morris-dancing-english-folk-tradition.html

Cheers, {{u| Sdkb  }}  talk 16:29, 16 August 2023 (UTC)

Styles
Currently the section on styles is rather confusing: it begins by telling readers that there are "six predominant styles", and then lists eight (Cotswold Morris, Northwest Morris, Border Morris, Yorkshire longsword, Rapper, Molly, Ploughstots, "a similar plough monday tradition from the east midlands"). But in the main text of the section, it only discusses five styles, lumping rapper and longsword togther into a broader sword dancing tradition, adding mumming, and discussing molly dancing and ploughstots (but not the east midland plough monday traditions) alongside Stave dancing, the Nantgarw dance tradition, and the Abbots Bromley horn dance in a section on "other traditions". So how many, and which, are the predominant styles, and how should they be organised?

My feeling (based on my own exposure to folk dance traditions rather than backed by any reliable source) is that the current predominant styles are Cotswold, Northwest, and Border Morris, Longsword, Rapper, and Molly. I don't know enough about the sword dancing traditions to have a strong view on whether they are usefully grouped together as something like "northern sword dance traditions" or treated separately, but my impression is that they are generally considered separate. The other plough Monday traditions are as far as I know not currently "predominant styles" and could either be treated in a discussion of "other traditions", or mentioned as alternative plough Monday traditions in a discussion of Molly dancing. (And mumming I would not consider a form of Morris so much as a related tradition which is often performed by morris dancers and/or incorporates morris dance; again I do not see that it should get its own subsection as one of the "predominant styles of morris dancing")

Any other thoughts? Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 13:25, 8 May 2024 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Morris dance


text:
Square dance

A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances are part of a broad spectrum of dances known by various names: country dances, traditional dances, folk dances, barn dances, ceilidh dances, contra dances, Playford dances, etc. These dances appear in over 100 different formations, of which the Square and the Longways Set are by far the most popular formations.

Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances including English country dances, which were first documented in 17th-century England, and 18th-century French quadrilles and cotillions; square dancing travelled to North America with the European settlers and developed significantly there.

Square dancing is done in many different styles all around the world. In some countries and regions, through preservation and repetition, square dances have attained the status of a folk dance. Square dancing is strongly associated with the United States, in part due to its association with the romanticized image of the American cowboy in the 20th century, and 31 states have designated it as their official state dance. The main North American types of square dances include traditional square dance and modern western square dance, which is widely known and danced worldwide. Other main types popular in England, Ireland, and Scotland include Playford dances, regional folk dances, ceili, Irish set dances, and Scottish country dances.

The couples in a square are numbered, although numbering varies among different types. In many of the types, two of the couples are known as heads and the other two are called sides. In most American forms of square dance, the dancers are prompted or cued through a sequence of steps by a caller to the beat (and, in some traditions, the phrasing) of music. In other variations, dancers have no caller and instead memorize and perform a specific routine and sequence of steps. Square dance music varies widely, with some forms using traditional tunes and others employing more modern types.

Dances can be organized by square dance clubs, bands, individuals, or similar organizations. Attire varies by type, with some forms possessing a specific dress code and others having no requirements. The standard square formation can also vary at times to include more or fewer dancers or arrange dancers in a different shape.

History
The origins of Square dances can be traced back to steps and figures used in traditional folk dances and social dances from many countries. One of the earliest influences may have been the Morris dance, an English dance for six men involving a line formation and energetic steps. This dance is closely related to another ancestor of square dancing, English country dance, which included a variety of dances for groups of couples arranged in circles, lines, or squares. In 1651, John Playford published 105 of these dances in The English Dancing Master, eight of which are square dances exhibiting concepts still in use, such as the head couples performing an action and the side couples repeating it. Three of the dances, such as "Dull Sir John", specifically use the term square dance in the phrase, "A Square Dance for eight thus". In the early 1800s, English country dances merged with French dances to form the quadrille, a dance for four couples in a square.

These dances further evolved in America, where they arrived with European settlers. After the American Revolution, the quadrille became especially popular. Quadrilles were originally danced from memorized steps and sequences, but as African American slaves played music for the dances, they began calling out the steps. This practice became common by the early 1900s and gave rise to the modern caller. Between 1940 and 1960, modern western square dance evolved from the western style of traditional square dance that had formed in the United States. Traditional western square dancing was promoted beginning in the 1930s by Lloyd Shaw, who solicited definitions from callers across the country in order to preserve that dance form and make it available to other teachers. The American folk music revival in New York City in the 1950s was rooted in the resurgent interest in square dancing and folk dancing there in the 1940s, which gave musicians such as Pete Seeger popular exposure.

Main types
Square dances are considered folk dances in many countries and regions, although the term square dance varies. In the United States the term is used for dances in square formations and also refers to the dance events where square dances are performed. In England, Ireland, and Scotland, the term is used less frequently, and many dance events involve dances in square, circle, and line formations. The term has also become associated with barn dances, where many different formations of dance are used.

Traditional square dance
Also called old-time square dance or quadrilles by some older New England callers in recognition of the dance it descended from, traditional square dance is not standardized and can be subdivided into three main regional styles: Northeast/New England, Southeast/Appalachian, and Western. The New England and Appalachian styles have been particularly well documented in the early U.S. and have survived to the 21st century. There are several other styles, some of which have survived or been revived while others have not. Where traditional square dance has been revived, it encompasses a wide range of new choreography.

Traditional square dance structure varies by region, but it usually consists of a limited number of calls occurring in a set order. Traditional square dance is frequently presented in alternation with contra dances, particularly in revival groups, or with some form of freestyle couple dancing at surviving local events.

Modern western square dance
Modern western square dance, which is also called western square dance, contemporary western square dance, or modern American square dance, evolved from the western style of traditional square dance.

Industrialist Henry Ford popularized the form. Ford believed that Jews invented jazz as a plot to corrupt society and that this plot could be counteracted by returning America to dances and musical styles that he saw as traditional and white. As a result, beginning in the early 1920s, he used his wealth to promote square dancing, through books and square dancing events. Ford also promoted square dance classes in public school, which were present in half of all American schools by 1928 as part of the standard physical education curriculum. Modern western square dance evolved in square dance events funded by Ford, using direction and guidance prepared by Colorado school superintendent Lloyd "Pappy" Shaw.

Since the 1970s, modern western square dance has been promoted and standardized by Callerlab, the International Association of Square Dance Callers. The initial stage reached by all dancers is called Mainstream. This program consists of a core list of about 70 moves which is revised periodically. Modern western square dance is sometimes presented in alternation with round dances. This modern form of square dancing is taught in around 30 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, China, Japan, and Russia. Within Europe, the majority of square dance clubs are in Germany and the United Kingdom. All teach the Callerlab syllabus, but there are slight style and call title variations throughout the world. Because of this standardization, anyone with the proper training can dance modern western square dancing in many countries around the world. Instruction is typically given in the local language, but the calls are always in English, allowing people to dance internationally once they learn the calls.

Playford dances
Also called English country dances, Playford-style dances originated from the dances published in John Playford's book The English Dancing Master. Some of the square dances listed in the book, such as "Newcastle", have survived to the 21st century, and countless new dances have been written in the Playford style. These dances include a range of moves, from smooth, gentle steps to more energetic leaps. They are supported by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Regional folk dances
Many traditional English regional folk dances are square dances that have survived into the 21st century. For instance, in both the Goathland square eight and the Cumberland square eight, which originated from different English villages, dancers perform a series of memorized moves in a square formation. Many of these dances are danced at folk or barn dances, along with other types of square dances including Playford dances; dances derived from the quadrille, such as "La Russe" published by H.D. Willock in the Manual of Dancing (c. 1847); American traditional square dances; and countless new square dances written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Ceili
Irish ceili dances cover a wide range of formations, including many square dances. They are often performed at traditional Irish and Scottish social gatherings called cèilidhs. Cèilidhs are also held in England, where the same squares may be done as at folk dances or barn dances but with more stepping, including skip steps, hop steps, polka steps, and rants.

Irish set dance
Irish set dance is a square dance with strong regional associations. The dance involves stepping, often with a flat-foot polka step. Unlike in traditional and modern western square dancing, where couples are designated as heads or sides, couples in Irish set dances are either tops or sides.

Scottish country dance
Scottish country dances cover a wide range of formations, including many square dances. These dances, which are standardized by the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, involve specific steps and formations that are performed in different sequences for different dances.

Continental Europe
Many traditions have square dances. They are usually not called; rather, the sequence of figures is fixed and known by the dancers. Examples include the German Bekedorfer, French Carré de Campagne, Mie Katoen from the Low Countries, and Eastern European Jewish Sher or Sherele. Variations include double squares, with two couples on each side, like the Danish Sonderborger Doppelkadril or the Dutch Vleegerd. Some are composed of multiple figures, indicating descent from the high-society quadrille.

Numbering of couples

The four couples arranged in a square are called a set, and each couple is numbered. Couple numbering in a square dance set usually begins with the couple nearest the head of the hall (the side of the room containing the musicians and caller, or, in the pre-caller era, the royal presence or other hosts or important guests). This couple is the first or number one couple.

If most figures are danced around the set, with one or more couples visiting the others in turn, the couples are likewise numbered around the set. In most surviving American square dance traditions, the couples are numbered counterclockwise: the second couple is to the first couple's right, the third couple is across from the first, and the fourth couple is to the left of the first. The first and third are head couples or heads (or, in older parlance, the first four); the second and fourth are side couples or sides (formerly side four or second four).

If most of the figures are danced between facing couples across the set, as in the 19th century quadrille and dances derived from it, the couple opposite the first is the second couple. The first and second couples constitute the head or top couples (or the head and foot couples); the third and fourth couples are the side couples. In Irish set dances, the third couple (sometimes termed the first side couple) is to the left of the first top couple. The couples facing the first top and first side are the second top couple and the second side couple respectively.

Callers and calls
Square dance movements are known as calls, and some forms of the dance, such as traditional and modern western square dancing, use a caller to direct the dancers through different calls. In some forms of traditional square dancing, the caller may be one of the dancers or musicians, but in modern western square dancing, the caller is on stage giving full attention to directing the dancers.

A square dance call may take a very short time or a very long time to execute. Most calls require between 4 and 32 counts, where a count is roughly one step. In traditional square dancing, the timing of a call is dictated by tradition; in some regional styles, particularly that of New England, the dance movements are closely fitted to the phrases of the music. In modern western square dancing, many calls have been given formally specified durations, based partly on direct observation of how long it takes an average dancer to execute them.

Traditional and modern western square dance differ in the number of calls and their levels of standardization. Traditional square dance uses between ten and thirty calls, depending on the region and the individual caller. Many traditional square dance calls are similar or identical to contra dance calls, and new dance moves are explained by the caller. In modern western square dance, the participants learn and become proficient in a particular defined set of calls known as a program. The Mainstream program, which is the default level of achievement, consists of close to 70 basic and mainstream calls. Rather than learning a complete routine, modern western square dancers learn basic movements and calls but do not know in what order they will be called. Unlike traditional square dance, two modern western dances are rarely alike. Most modern western square dancers participate only in the programs they have fully learned. Callerlab, the callers' international association, sets all programs and governs the training of callers.

Traditional and modern western square dancing have a number of calls in common, but there are usually small differences in the way they are performed. For example, the Allemande Left is traditionally performed by grasping left hands with the other dancer, pulling away from each other slightly, and walking halfway around a central axis then stepping through. In modern western square dance, the grip is modified so that each dancer grips the forearm of the other, and there is no pulling (that is, each dancer supports his or her own weight). These modifications make it easier to enter and exit the movement and thus easier to incorporate it into a long sequence of calls.

In many communities, including Scotland and Ireland, and also continental Europe, the dancers know the complete dance and there is no caller.

Music
Square dance music varies widely by type of dance.

Traditional square dance is primarily danced to live music. Since the 19th century, much of the square dance repertoire has been derived from jigs and reels from Scotland and Ireland, sometimes in relatively unaltered form, sometimes as played in the old-time music tradition or as adapted by other cultures, such as that of Quebec. This sort of music is played on acoustic instruments, such as the fiddle, banjo, guitar, and double bass; certain instruments, including the piano, accordion, concertina, and hammered dulcimer, are popular in specific regions. In some communities where square dancing has survived, the prevailing form of music has become popular songs from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, played on instruments such as saxophones, drums, and electric guitars. Tempos can vary from around 108 to more than 150 beats per minute, depending on the regional style.

Modern western square dance is danced to a variety of music types, including pop, traditional and contemporary country music, songs from Broadway musicals, rock, Motown, techno, and hip-hop. The music is usually played from recordings, and the tempo is more uniform than in traditional square dancing, ranging from 120-128 beats per minute. At this speed, dancers take one step per beat of the music.

Irish and Scottish dances are normally done to traditional tunes. English dances may be done to traditional tunes, though there is experimentation with many different musical styles, especially at cèilidhs.

Clubs and attire
Square dance events can be run in different ways. In North America, traditional square dances are organized by bands, callers, or small groups of dancers. Modern western square dances are arranged by square dance clubs. The clubs offer classes, socials, and dance evenings and arrange larger dances that are usually open to non-club members. In Britain, square dance clubs are affiliated with the British Association of American Square Dance Clubs, which also organizes the teaching of modern western square dance to Callerlab definitions. Most square dance events in Britain are run according to the Callerlab syllabus by a caller who is either a member of Callerlab or of the Square Dance Callers Club of Great Britain, and the level of dancing is indicated on the publicity material, as in "Mainstream" or "Mainstream with Pre-Announced Plus". Céilidh and barn dance events are also often advertised as being square dance events.

Square dance attire varies by the type of dance and by region. Traditional square dance groups often have no particular dress code. In the United States, larger modern western square dance events sometimes request a strict western-style dress code, which originated in the late 1950s and early 1960s and is known as traditional square dance attire, although it was not traditional before that time. Some clubs require a less strict dress code, known as proper, or no dress code, called casual. Although many modern western square dancers in Britain wear traditional square dance attire, events often have a relaxed dress code. Where traditional square dancing exists as a community social dance, sometimes in the form of a barn dance or a cèilidh, people often dress up, though their clothing is not square-dance-specific.

In the United States, lines between the forms of square dancing have become blurred. Traditional-revival groups typically adopt very casual dress, and traditional-revival choreographers have begun to use basic movements that were invented for modern western square dance forms. A few modern western callers incorporate older dances from various traditions, such as New England or Appalachian, into their programs.

Variations
While the standard formation for a square dance is four couples in a square, there are many variations on the theme. These include:
 * Ninepins: a square with one extra person in the middle.
 * Winter Solstice: a square with one extra couple in the middle.
 * Hexitation: a square with two couples in each of the head positions.
 * Twelve Reel: a square with three people on each side, normally a man with a woman on either side of him.
 * Hexagon dancing: six couples arranged in a hexagon. There are three head couples and three side couples. This variation is most commonly done by advanced and challenge-level dancers.
 * Bigon: a square with four people who each dances their own part and that of their opposite. This variation is almost exclusively done by challenge-level dancers due to its difficulty.

Modern choreography also includes dances which morph from one form to another. There are contra dances and four-couple longways sets which turn into a square dance part of the way through the dance and then back to the original formation.

Grid squares are dances where the squares are arranged in a grid, with sets carefully aligned across the room and up and down the room. The calls move dancers from one square to another in intricate patterns.

title: Square dance