i was just reading UK Coast to Coast - Charity ride?? and saw that Mikefule dances morris 
, i just wondered if anyone else does? and who do you dance with Mikefule??
Cheers Ned
not me!
Yes - Stroud Morris Dancers. Except that due to declining to just four men, weāve decided to jack it in. There are a whole bunch of ladies in our side though, but they donāt dance with us.
Wassail!
Mikefule dances Morris, and loved BillyTheMountainās signature when it was quoting Mikefule.
An interesting first postā¦?
Mike dances with the Dolphin Morris.
no not really first post i was THeNed then it stopped letting me on as that. i dance with lassington oak near gloucester and another one of our members used to be in the gloucester unicycle hockey which is partly why i asked. team i didnāt realise stroud only had four men left why donāt you just dance with the ladies? become a mixed side?
For people my age, Morris is a cat.
a cat???
for my age (16) tis cool
Have you played with them yourself?
I love men who can skip!
Questionā¦ Isnāt it wrong for women to dance as in āthe morris danceā. I though it was unluckyā¦ something to do with the harvestā¦ like not slaving in the fields getting the harvest in (whilst the blokes are downing brew and dancing 
)
No.
This is an old argument that is still raised from time to time by the older and more misogynistic male dancers, and by journalists looking for a lazy way to poke fun at the Morris. It is the equivalent of saying that all unicyclists are clowns.
The Morris was traditionally danced by male teams in the 1800s and before. But then, almost everything interesting or fun was done by the men in those days because society allowed men to go out and do, and forced women to stay at home, cook and breed.
So the fact that the Morris was āall maleā was really nothing to do with the Morris, but to do with the male-dominated state of society at that time.
As for the connection with ancient pagan fertility rituals, the sowing and the harvest and so on, that is pretty much nonsense that was grafted onto it by the middle class late Victorians and their immediate successors because of their own preconceptions and sentimentality.
The Morris nearly died out by the end of the 19th Century. It was ārescuedā following an incident in 1899, when Cecil Sharp saw the Headington Quarry team.
- They were all men - well, they were heavy manual workers from a quarry.
- They weren't doing a fertility ritual to make the crops grow - they were quarry workers.
- They weren't doing a May day or spring ritual - it was Boxing Day (26th December).
- They weren't doing it because of some deeply held pagan beliefs - they were busking for money and booze at a time of year when work was scarce.
The Morris is now primarily a hobby, although there are still a few genuine traditional teams around, including Headington Quarry, Bampton (3 teams!), and Hayfield (Derbyshire). The Morris was danced by women in the early 1900s, and kept alive throughout the first world war by female or mixed teams.
In the later big revival (1960s/70s) it was still primarily male. Now I guesstimate that it is not far off a 50/50 split male/female.
NO its just traditional that men dance. though in the first and second world war when all the men went off to fight and die for their country the morris was almost lost itās the mostly thanks the women who had watched the dances being done that they survived and still quite a lot of sides donāt like women dancing. i personally do not agree with this sexist tradition and only dance with lassington because our freinds do and there arenāt any mixed sides around here.
No i havnāt because iām mostly into trials and donāt have an appropriate uni and have never played hockey in my life.
A trials uni is plenty appropriate and playing hockey(sic) will help you improve your micro-control of the machine no end.
You should give it a go. It is good fun and a great workout.
yeah ok iāll try to find out about it.
I get kinda evangelical about UniHoki so when I get too irritatingly pushy, just smile and nod and tell me to sod off.
My best friend from school/college was a Morris Dancer. He danced because his Dad danced. His Dad is also Squire of the Morris Ringā¦which I believe is a very important thing.
He managed to get me to dance a couple of times. My friends have never let me forget it! They laughed so much 
You mean Paul? Iāve lost track of who the Lord of the Ring is at the moment. Think itās still Bob Cross. If so, tell your mates you danced with his sister too. Thatāll shut 'em up.
I donāt think the ladies want to dance with us! Our two sides have evolved very different styles, although both originally based on Ducklington. Did I see Lassington at Upton FF last weekend? (or was it Bristol on BH Monday - I seem to have seen dancers everywhere!)
Iām hoping that weāll reform eventually, in the meantime Iām taking at least a yearās break from it as I was getting rather stale and bored - had only been hanging on as we were so short of men. Might see you over the summer, I still keep an eye open for local sides dancing out.
Wassail!
Yes, thatās the guy. Wow, the world just got smaller. Yes, I believe it still is Bob. Our families go way back.
Whatās that about his sister? Whatās so special about her?
Yeah, Iāve occasionally gone along to a dance (who can say no to a day at the pub?!) and I usually get asked by Paul to join in.