Sunday 18 December 2011

Morris Dancing and Andrew Marr

Whilst watching Andrew Marr's saturday 'News' show, the topic of Flash Mob Morris dancers going to the olympics came up - with one guest chuckling that it would show our traditional eccentricity .. .
As a fan of the Icknield Way Morris men and others willing to give this extremely difficult folk dance a go I woke up..



However, the topic of 'Englishness' rearing it's potentially racist head was too much for Andrew to bear on his peak morning show... time to find a quick put down ...
Ahem! Didnt this guest know that Morris Dancing came from the word 'Moorish dancing' , and was actually ..DA DA DAHHH .. Islamic....?...
[inference being I supposed  'we have no identity, it is all built on theft and fakery']

Well Andrew, of course everything can be traced back to somewhere (Africa) and very few cultures are not influenced by their history with others, this is true. ...  But why would a group of people on the crusades or fighting battles on their home turf with the Moors, adopt a dance of the enemy ?

Can you hear the French listening to Wagner or see the English wearing lederhosen to celebrate D-Day.?

Anyway - so Morris Dancing - Croatian Morescu dancing is the more likely culprit I am wisely informed.
It is European in origin and is a folk sword dance performed to celebrate the overthrowing of Moorish invaders in earlier history.
Take that Andrew!



This seems apparant towards the end, and looks a lot like Morris dancing.

Conclusion - Morris is most likely a European dance about fighting the Islamic troops, not being them.


This is not to say Islamic folk dancing is not great too, it's just less likely to be the origin of Morris dancing.

Please feel free to post any folk dancing from any country or origin by way of response...the important thing is that we all keep dancing!

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