More Morris History, and a chance to learn a couple more dances.
If you need more exercise then we are very impressed with teams that are doing Rhys Boorman’s workouts together at their online practice sessions.
The big ones are the JMO Day of Dance on Sat 24th April – everyone from all 3 morris orgs welcome. (The JMO is the Joint Morris Organisations – the Morris Federation, the Morris Ring and Open Morris) and our ‘Workshop Showcase’ Day on Sun 9th May – come along to perform together all the dances we’ve learned in our online workshops this winter, so get practising.
Come along to our events (LIVE on Zoom)
Click on the links below to find out more and to register. The latest and correct list will always be at: www.morrisfed.org.uk/events/. Also posted on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/MorrisFed.org.uk.
see all MF events & register
April 2021
- Workshop – Border – ‘Waiting for the Vaccine’ solo dance – Sat 10th April 15:00-16:30
. Linda Glanville & Pauline Woods-Wilson teach a newly-devised solo Border style dance which can easily be adapted for two dancing together. Optional ‘progressive’ choruses. - Talk – “Good Morning, Lords and Ladies” – Gill & Barry Goodman – Sun 11th April 16:00-17:30.
The magic, mystery & madness of English traditional customs through the year, in story, song & visual images. From May Day to Ottery St Mary Tar Barrel Rolling, Whittlesey Straw Bear, Derbyshire Well Dressing and Norfolk “Jack Valentine”, and more. - Not one of our events but lots on at Folk Weekend Oxford on Fri 16th – Sun 18th April.
Joint Morris Organisations’ Day of Dance 2021 – Sat 24th April 10:00-17:00. All 3 morris orgs invite you to play and dance the day away. Two parallel streams: Morris Music Sessions, and Dance Workshops for various styles. We’ll finish off the day with massed dancing. NEW!- Talk – The Adderbury Morris Men – Sun 25th April 16:00-17:30
. Find out about the Adderbury tradition in Oxfordshire that died out in the 19thC, what sparked its revival in 1975, and what happened next.
May 2021
- Last session of 6 Week Programme – Return to Dancing Fitness – Rhys Boorman – Sun 2nd May 10:00-11:00. Get dance fit with Rhys with the weekly videos (see the playlist linked from that page). This is the final ‘live’ session. No need to re-register if you registered for the first one.
- Talk – Who were the Sword Dancers and why did they do it? – Andrew Kennedy – Sun 2nd May 16:00-17:30. We take a look at the people who did sword dancing in Britain and northern Europe from 14thC to 19thC. NEW!
- Workshop Showcase Day – Sun 9th May [sorry – now cancelled]. Be a Lockdown Learner! Show off all your newly acquired skills and dances that you’ve learned at our workshops. For each Cotswold, Clog, North West, and Border dance we’ve done in the workshops, we’ll have a rehearsal then we can all dance it together and take a video recording for posterity. NEW!
- Talk – ‘Morris Dancers and Rose Queens’ Volume 1: 1888-1900 ‘Once over Lightly’ – Johnny Haslett – Sat 15th May 16:00-17:30. A tour of his book – an anthology of reported carnivals and galas in West Lancashire between 1888 and 1900, together with the accompanying morris dancing activity. NEW!
We are having a break from online weekend events after 15th May, and starting again in the winter, so do please get in touch if you would like to offer a talk or workshop, or suggest someone else to run one!
see all MF events & register
In other news …
Morris Federation’s Day of Dance & AGM in September
We’ve made the sad decision to cancel the Day of Dance in September with hosts Customs and Exiles, who have been ever so patient and we thank them for all their hard work planning this event. So this year’s AGM will be held online over Zoom on Saturday 25th September 2021.
Next year we’ll look forward to seeing you in person in Darlington as hosts of Black Diamond Mixed Cotswold Morris on Saturday 24th September 2022.
Fancy being our Events Officer?
It has been a lot of fun organising these events for you, and we’ve already had requests and volunteers to run online events over Winter 2021/22. So we now have a role of ‘Events Officer’ up for grabs. If you fancy helping make our events happen, which includes liaising with potential speakers/workshop leaders, creating web pages, managing the bookings, emailing registrants and hosting the events, please email Pauline at president@morrisfed.org.uk with info about your experience and what you would be happy to contribute.
We need your video editing skills!
We’ve been recording most of the online events, but it takes a lot of time to do a professional job on them to edit out all the little interruptions, and add the branding and credits. If you have some spare time and video editing skills and would like to help edit our videos for posterity, or even create new videos, then please email Sally Smith, our Communications Officer, at communications@morrisfed.org.uk with info about your experience and how you could help.
