What is Morris Dancing?

[Burning Petard]

My only exposure is through Monty Python and that sole source has led me to believe it is something truly horrible and that is the sole basis for its preservation in the uniquely horrible English culture. Which is a better reason than that which preserves many traditions. Wikipedia is not much help.

But yet I love the music of Jools Holland and trust he is a true English musician.

In his latest record release, Pianola, there is something called "Morris Dance' with Trombone Shorty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Btm-rWDfY

Does this have any connections with a real Morris Dance, or is the name some kind of inside joke?

snailgate

[Crackpot]

I think you mean Black Adder

[Burning Petard]

No Crackpot, Black Adder is almost entirely outside my experience. I have watched only two episodes both placed in the Great War.

snailgate

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Bicycle Bill]

The Morris dance is common to all inhabited worlds in the multiverse.

It is danced under blue skies to celebrate the quickening of the soil and under bare stars because it's springtime and with any luck the carbon dioxide will unfreeze again. The imperative is felt by deep-sea beings who have never seen the sun and urban humans whose only connection with the cycles of nature is that their Volvo once ran over a sheep.

It is danced innocently by raggedy-bearded young mathematicians to an inexpert accordion rendering of "Mrs Widgery's Lodger" and ruthlessly by such as the Ninja Morris Men of New Ankh, who can do strange and terrible things with a simple handkerchief and a bell.

And it is never danced properly.

Except on the Discworld, which is flat and supported on the backs of four elephants which travel through space on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the world turtle.

And even there, only in one place have they got it right. It's a small village high in the Ramtop Mountains, where the big and simple secret is handed down across the generations.

There, the men dance on the first day of spring, backwards and forwards, bells tied under their knees, white shirts flapping. People come and watch. There's an ox roast afterwards, and it's generally considered a nice day out for all the family.

But that isn't the secret.

The secret is the other dance.

And that won't happen for a while yet.

Thanks once again to Katie Barefoot, who introduced me to the writings of Sir Terry Pratchett, and who dragged me, a willing captive, off to a sci-fi convention in St. Paul back in 2005 where I was fortunate enough to meet the man behind the word processor.

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

If these people did this in the U.S. each one of the dancers would lose their job, be victims of cancel culture and they would all be considered racists....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ3A335xbEc

[Burning Petard]

Again I ask -- what connection does this dancing have with the jazz band performance by Jool Holland and Trombone Shorty? Is the basic melody the jazz chart is based on come from Morris Dancing? I sure don't hear it.

snailgate

[Joe Guy]

I think it's just the song's name. I don't think it means anything.

[MajGenl.Meade]

FWIW

They rolled straight into the next number before stopping to say ‘hello’ to the audience, and introduce the next song, Morris Dance which he tells us is about his dog, aptly named Morris.

https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/whats-on/a ... ts-1321492

[Burning Petard]

Thank you Gen'l Named for his dog? That sort of confirms my ignorance-based opinion of Morris Dancing.

snailgate