MORRIS DANCING

Bill and I were on our way to Westminster Abby.  We love to walk and look, so we took the long way.  We came on a beautiful building.   It was Westminster Cathedral.

 Your religion lesson for today:

• Westminster Cathedral- The Catholic  church
• Westminster Abby- The Anglican church (Church of England)

There was a large crowd and music, so we stopped to see what was going on.  We found that there was a  Morris dancing festival.

Now here is a English culture lesson.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_dancing

There were the following- In this order on the video

• 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.

•   Border Morris from the English-Welsh border: a simpler, looser, more vigorous style, traditionally danced with blackened faces.

• Molly Dancing from Cambridgeshire. Traditionally danced on Plough Monday, they were Feast dances that were danced to collect money during harsh winters.

                               hit the right hand corner to get FULL SCREEN

• 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.










• Longsword dancing from Yorkshire and south Durham, danced with long, rigid metal or wooden swords for, usually, 6 or 8 dancers.

BILL MET A FRIEND AT THE EVENT

IT WAS GREAT FUN TO WATCH.  WE BECAME SO ENGROSSED WE MADE IT TO WESTMINSTER ABBY JUST AS IT WAS CLOSING…OH WELL, MAYBE MONDAY.