Here’s your latest update & what’s on from the Morris Federation, with our last few online events of the winter, and bookings now open for the MF Day of Dance & AGM in Darlington in September. Plus a new chat room for those working with new generations, or those wishing to learn how.
Events – online and in-person
March 2022
Workshop – Cotswold Morris Jigs – KOKI (Hybrid: In person and LIVE on Zoom) – Sun 20th March 10:30-16:00. Knights of King Ina will run through of a number of Cotswold Jigs in preparation for the dance season. Being run as an in-person workshop in Somerset (£10), and simultaneously online over Zoom (free). It’s also a chance to experience a ‘hybrid’ event.
Talk – “Sticks, Hankies, Baldricks & Bells – Dances of Catalunya” – Stephen Rowley (LIVE on Zoom) – Sun 27th March 17:00-18:30. Catalunya in Spain is notable for its ‘Balls Populars’ – Popular Dances. Morris dancers can identify with aspects of these dances – costume (whites, baldricks, bell pads), columnar form, pipe & tabor music, sticks & handkerchiefs. Stephen takes us to the Fiesta to find out more.
April 2022
Saturday 9th April 2022 10:00-16:00 in Liverpool – JMO National Day of Dance (click to see names of teams booked). Hosted by the Morris Ring in the North West. Bookings now closed.
September 2022
Saturday 24th Sept 2022 in Darlington – MF Day of Dance, AGM and Ceilidh hosted by Black Diamond Mixed Cotswold Morris. Bookings now open.
2023
- Saturday 23rd Sept 2023 in Shropshire – MF Day of Dance and AGM hosted by Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden’s Tuppenny Dish.
The latest and correct list is at: www.morrisfed.org.uk/events/. The online events will stop at the end of March and restart in November. How to access an online event: Register for an event, and we’ll email you a Zoom link. We are also recording most of our events, for our MF YouTube channel.
See: MF Events
Working with New Generations
Thanks to those who completed our survey about working with new generations (under 18’s). We would like to support you, and encourage others to do similar activities.
We’ve set up a Facebook group to chat and share ideas: The Morris Federation – New Generations Network – please join in this private group and get chatting.
Events from other organisations
March 2022
April 2022
- EFDSS Library Lectures (£5 each): including one on morris dancing: ‘All together in the dance’ – Matt Simons – Wed 20th Apr 19:30-21:00 – Alec Hunter (1899-1958), artist, textile designer and Morris dancer. Raised on Arts and Crafts precepts, he perceived Morris dancing as a highly developed form of English ‘social art’, an apt panacea for an age of disenchantment and division.
Anytime
- EFDSS What’s On: https://www.efdss.org/whats-on
- The Folk Forecast – weekly what’s on summary
In the media
- Steps of Freedom: The Story of Irish Dance (BBC4 Sun 13th Mar 2022): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0015f6r/steps-of-freedom-the-story-of-irish-dance (59 mins, available for over a year)
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