Morris Dance - Styles

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, traditionally danced with blackened faces, which was used as a disguise so the dancers would not be recognised by the local landowners whilst out 'begging' for money.
• Longsword dancing from Yorkshire and south Durham, danced with long, rigid metal or wooden swords for, usually, 6 or 8 dancers.
• Rapper from Northumberland and Co. Durham, danced with short flexible sprung steel swords, usually for 5 dancers.
• Molly Dancing 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.