Beltane Border Morris Dancing at Teignmouth Shanty Festival 2023 🎻 🎼 🪈 

Thanks for your kind comments. I have another two song and dances performed by this fantastic folk group. Please check them out on my channel. I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for you kind comments. I was so glad to have watched and filmed this folk group. They were breathtaking as far as I’m concerned. I enjoyed every song and dance they performed. So glad I can share it with you all on RU-vid

Glad you enjoyed it!

So glad you enjoyed the dance. I have another two dances on my channel. Please go to my channel list and watch them both. I’m sure you will enjoy them both just as much as the first one you watched. Thanks for the lovely comments.

Women have always had far more opportunities for dance than men have had. Morris dancing was about the only form reserved for male dancers.

What kind of dancing can only women do? I'm just curious. :-)

Glad you enjoyed it

There's ancient power in this dance and women greatly intensify it ...

There were women morris dancers in the the late 1800's and in the NW tradition before and after WW1. A spin off from the latter being today's all girl Carnival Morris.

Wow, thank you. So glad you enjoyed it. Check out the other songs and dance from this folk group on my channel. I’m sure you will enjoy them too.

Fantastic

Glad you enjoyed it

Thank you! Cheers!

Which people?

Morris dancers don’t really do tours some do. Your best bet is trying to find a social media of theirs either Instagram or Facebook as they usually post when and where their performing.

Google Morris dance, Wikipedia has a nice amount of info

This is border morris, which I like to call the punk rock of morris dancing. Dark colours, painted faces, hats with feathers, ragged clothes, and dances with big, fast movements.

Apart from the use of black for all of the participants, the costumes are very traditional, especially the men's. Traditionally, the dancers would all be men, but for a number of years, women have also participated. The ragged costumes, which in traditional dances would be more likely to be brightly multicoloured, are examples of "guising", a word more familiar as "disguising". The costume and the black face were, supposedly, to hide the identity of the dancer. Legend says that the young Henry VIII would take part in guising dances. If only one dancer blackened their face, they represented the Moor. Morris dances come in a number of forms. They are probably pre-Christian. The idea was to attract the attention of the gods, and guising meant that the gods were less likely to identify the individual dancers. Dances could be to celebrate the return of Spring, to persuade the gods to send a good harvest, to ensure the return of the sun after the Autumn Equinox, and so on. Dancers might dress in straw outfits to represent bears, or in black in the 19th century onwards to represent a chimney sweep, or as females to represent the Earth Goddess. There are many traditional costumes from different parts of the country. Dancers might wear bells to "entertain" the gods, or hit sticks, as here, to attract the gods' attention. The use of feathers, green leaves, or flowers was to link the dancers with nature. On a side note, traditionally, the music would be played on whatever instruments people had, drums, flutes, fiddles, and so on. Today, it's more likely that a person would play a guitar, and dance troupes are including these more.

​@@PLuMUK54 A lot of strange notions about morris dancing there. Morris dancing began as a 14th century royal court entertainment - it is not 'pre-Christian' and wasn't danced to 'attract the attention of the gods'. It was never danced as some kind of fertility rite or to increase the harvest - the village dancers used to dance for money. Straw bears and morris dancing are quite separate traditions. Guising and morris dancing are quite separate traditions Outside of some of the very early court dances blacking up only occurs following the popularity of the minstrel troupes that toured England in the early 19th century. Dancers historically wore bells because they made a pleasant rhythmic noise to accompany the dance. Dancers hit sticks together to make a loud rythmic noise, Neither of the above were intended to 'entertain' or 'attract the attention of the gods' - simply because the dance is not 'pagan'.

King of the Fairies

Not sure what you mean by your comment. I think everyone enjoyed the performance and all had a great time at the Shanty Festival. Thanks for watching my Channel and taking the time to comment.

Sorry! The audience looked a little bit unresponsive, but obviously I am olny seeing a little bit of them on the video. So glad everyone enjoyed it!

If you have to ask that, you don't get it.

It means exactly the same thing as Appalachian Clogging, River Dance or ballet. To quote Homer Simpson "Doh".

Yep.

Sorry that you feel that way. I have never seen them before and really enjoyed the song and performance they put on. Thanks for your comments and I hope you enjoy watching may be some other things I have on my channel.

The faux outrage about the 'blackface' was ridiculous. It's also not really about the supposedly Moorish origins of the dance, about which there is still some debate. There is a full explanation of the reason for it on Beltane's website.

It was originally a traditional representation of the coal miners.

​@@juvenalsdad4175 Unfortunately, all the evidence points to blacking up only becoming popular in morris dancing following the American minstrel tours of England in the early 19th century. The theories that it had something to do with miners, chimney sweeps, or disguises isn't born out by any evidence.

​@@jsa-z1722 No.

​1:29 ​​@@juvenalsdad4175 Beltane's history of blacking up is totally inaccurate. As pointed out there is little if any evidence of black face paint being used before the 19th century.

Glad you enjoyed my short video. Thank You for your comments

Are you serious?.... 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Oh, shut up. They're Goths.

Saturn is a planet...and stop it with all this 'Satanic Panic' rubbish...this is all coming from American right-wing Christianity. The world is going mad!

Literally the point of border morris. Especially Beltane

​​@@TheLaughingCavalier01 The modern revival version of Border morris that is. Even the name Border Morris is modern as it first appears in the early 1960's - prior to that it was the West Midlands Morris.

I'm delighted we left the EU. That aside, this is Morris at its best.

Not sure what carrying on an ancient tradition has to do with Brexit but ok. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤔

They're a dance troupe, you goober. And what the fuck does that have to do with leaving the European Union? Morris Dancing is part of European culture. There are Morris groups all over Europe in a myriad of styles. Do some research & stop being a provincial git.

They are Morris Dancers....Are you American? Really ignorent thing to say!

​@@Violetmoon751Don't know what American has to do with it but I'm American and digging these videos . I came across it a couple days ago and I can't stop watching . I'm totally intrigued about the history .

No. This has more life.

Jingly bells and hankies would lift it to another level. Lots more jingly bells and maybe rainbow hankies@@catherinearangie2311

Hankies are mainly used for Cotswold Morris.

This is Border Morris, which is more rough, more Coal Miner & more "out there".

England

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