Events

The talk draws on Peter Harrop’s editorial and introductory contributions to The Routledge Companion to English Folk Performance published last year (2021). He will use examples of morris dancing, mumming and sword dancing to consider four broad points. Presentation for approx 1 hour, then 30 mins for Q&A. Click on the link below to book a place and you will be sent a Zoom link to access the event.

Have you ever wondered what might be the best way to bring on a beginner when they join your team?  Would you find it useful to have a model of how teachers teach and learners learn?  Have you been missing an opportunity to learn from other foremen about what they do? In this session, Emma Wooders will share some teaching tips which might be useful for foremen (old, new and aspiring) garnered from her other life as a teacher as well as her foreman's experience.  There will be practical suggestions as well as some of the big ideas behind them to help develop your practice at practice. Click on the link below to book a place and you will be sent a Zoom link to access the event.

Knights of King Ina are restarting their workshop series with a chance to run through a number of Cotswold Jigs in preparation to a dance season where dancers and teams can again go out and meet.  It is offered as an in-person workshop in Somerset, and also online over Zoom at the same time.  So it's also a chance to experience a 'hybrid' event.  Click on the name of the event for more info and to register for a place.

Spain has a vibrant traditional dance culture, with many distinctive regional styles.  Catalunya is notable for its 'Balls Populars' – Popular Dances.   There are aspects of these dances which we as morris dancers can identify with, for instance costume (whites, baldricks, bell pads), columnar form, pipe and tabor music, sticks and handkerchiefs.  In this talk Stephen Rowley takes us to the Fiesta to find out more. Visca Balls Populars! Visca Catalunya! Click on the name of the event for more info and to register for a place.

“How do we get to the top of Google?” is a question you might be asking, especially if you’re looking to recruit new members or you want to make it easier for event organisers to find information about your side. We probvide two different approaches which you can use (for free!) to help get information (including photos and videos) of your side to the first page of Google results – and we’ll provide evidence of the effectiveness of these approaches which, as you can see from the results of a search for “Mixed morris side near me” is working for at least side sides in the south west. We’ll also explain how you may be able get information about your side to the first page of Google results even if you don’t have a website – this session isn’t just for IT geeks Click on the name of the event for more info and to register for a place.

You probably want to recruit new dancers or musicians. Or you want event organisers to easily find details of your side.  So if details of your side were to be found in the first few results for a Google query such as “looking for a mixed morris side in Dorset which welcomes new members” you’d be very happy. Especially if the first result included photographs and videos of your side.  

That problem has been solved – even if your side does not have a website (in brief add appropriate words and upload photographs and videos to your Morris Federation’s Teamfinder service). 

Click on the name of the event for more info and to register for a place.

In this illustrated talk, Sue Allan considers the styles and sources of the dances performed at Keswick, Ulverston, Wigton, Blennerhasset, Cockermouth and Workington, which she has researched for over forty years. Newspaper reports, memoirs and even a novel reveal tantalising glimpses of the dancing, while photographs of dancers and interviews with former performers and teachers shed yet more light on performances.

Click on the name of the event for more info and to register for a place.