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[Jesse Smith]

I have been working on "Bonny Green Garters" and I've been watching videos of the dance on YouTube to get a feel for how the tune is meant to work with the dance steps. As expected for an amateur activity, there's a wide variety of skill levels on display on YouTube. There are plenty of sides that essentially walk through the figures indifferently. But when you do find a group that is putting a lot of energy into the hops and getting real air on the capers in the last part of this dance and then coming down all together at once, it's really exciting to watch.

Can anyone recommend some Morris sides (that have videos on YouTube) that are consistently at a high standard of rehearsal and energy? I know the Hammersmith Morris Men are very well respected, and I have enjoyed the videos I've seen of the Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden's Tuppenny Dish. Who else can you recommend?

[baz parkes]

I have been working on "Bonny Green Garters" and I've been watching videos of the dance on YouTube to get a feel for how the tune is meant to work with the dance steps. As expected for an amateur activity, there's a wide variety of skill levels on display on YouTube. There are plenty of sides that essentially walk through the figures indifferently. But when you do find a group that is putting a lot of energy into the hops and getting real air on the capers in the last part of this dance and then coming down all together at once, it's really exciting to watch.

Can anyone recommend some Morris sides (that have videos on YouTube) that are consistently at a high standard of rehearsal and energy? I know the Hammersmith Morris Men are very well respected, and I have enjoyed the videos I've seen of the Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden's Tupenny Dish. Who else can you recommend?

Old School...Bampton...it's their dance after all (They call it Greeny Up I believe,,,)

New KIds on the Block ...Fool's Gambit

See also Great Western, Berkshire Bedlams, Windsor,

 

[vof]

I have been working on "Bonny Green Garters" and I've been watching videos of the dance on YouTube to get a feel for how the tune is meant to work with the dance steps. As expected for an amateur activity, there's a wide variety of skill levels on display on YouTube. There are plenty of sides that essentially walk through the figures indifferently. But when you do find a group that is putting a lot of energy into the hops and getting real air on the capers in the last part of this dance and then coming down all together at once, it's really exciting to watch.

Can anyone recommend some Morris sides (that have videos on YouTube) that are consistently at a high standard of rehearsal and energy? I know the Hammersmith Morris Men are very well respected, and I have enjoyed the videos I've seen of the Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden's Tupenny Dish. Who else can you recommend?

Old School...Bampton...it's their dance after all (They call it Greeny Up I believe,,,)

New KIds on the Block ...Fool's Gambit

See also Great Western, Berkshire Bedlams, Windsor,

 

Clausentum:  http://clausentummorris.weebly.com/ are excellent!

[robotmay]

Pecsetan have always been very good when I've seen them dancing out. I also really rate Harlequin Morris; they have a lot of very good dancers and they have some great arrangements.

[baz parkes]

Pecsetan have always been very good when I've seen them dancing out.

How could I forget...

Also Moulton Morris

[Thrupenny Bit]

Wot Baz et al said.....

Jesse, be aware the Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhodens are Border morris so their tunes are subtly different, as are North West morris sides.
Depending on the ( Cotswold ) tradition, you will come across steps called 'capers' and 'slows' and they are what they sound like. The music slows to enable the dances to dance the step.
Every side will dance their capers slows according to how they interpret it, so every side will be different to a greater or lesser amount and their musician has to cope with that variation.
If you're watching 'Bonny Green' being danced, the final choruses will include capers so the music has to adjust to allow the dancers to take off and land in time.

It's difficult being a morris musician, and a great skill!
Q
who appreciates his morris musicians!

[Mcgrooger]

I'd assume that Jesse was asking for links to recommended YouTube videos rather than just the names of good morris sides, no? I think any such links might be of interest to a number of melnetters. I can imagine that merely searching YT for morris dance vids would yield some pretty 'mixed' results.

[baz parkes]

I'd assume that Jesse was asking for links to recommended YouTube videos rather than just the names of good morris sides, no? I think any such links might be of interest to a number of melnetters. I can imagine that merely searching YT for morris dance vids would yield some pretty 'mixed' results.

True...but I think searching for the named teams should work ??

[robotmay]

Well here's a nice one of Harlequin to get ye started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0KpYJwiII
It's also well worth going through the Sidmouth jig competition entries; there's some great playing (and dancing), and I even make an appearance as well - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIzHjWz0EKunVH0pvI5e1OUtNsaSkJwt_

[Jesse Smith]

Jesse, be aware the Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhodens are Border morris so their tunes are subtly different, as are North West morris sides.
Depending on the ( Cotswold ) tradition, you will come across steps called 'capers' and 'slows' and they are what they sound like. The music slows to enable the dances to dance the step.
Every side will dance their capers slows according to how they interpret it, so every side will be different to a greater or lesser amount and their musician has to cope with that variation.
If you're watching 'Bonny Green' being danced, the final choruses will include capers so the music has to adjust to allow the dancers to take off and land in time.

Oh yes, I was going to mention that the Bedlams and Rhodens don't play the same sorts of standard Cotswold tunes.

I had read the same elsewhere about having to freely adjust the rhythm for jumps. I guess when playing a tune by itself that sort of thing doesn't apply, but yet I feel like it is good to be familiar with the dance so one's playing can at least be informed by what actually happens in the dance.

[Jesse Smith]

I'd assume that Jesse was asking for links to recommended YouTube videos rather than just the names of good morris sides, no? I think any such links might be of interest to a number of melnetters. I can imagine that merely searching YT for morris dance vids would yield some pretty 'mixed' results.

Well, yes, I'm looking for morris sides that have videos available online somewhere, but a list of names of such sides is a fine starting point for searching.

[Jesse Smith]

Well here's a nice one of Harlequin to get ye started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0KpYJwiII
It's also well worth going through the Sidmouth jig competition entries; there's some great playing (and dancing), and I even make an appearance as well - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIzHjWz0EKunVH0pvI5e1OUtNsaSkJwt_

Those are great! That is what I was talking about - where tightly rehearsed and energetic dancers make it look like they are practically floating off the ground, staying on the balls of their feet almost the entire dance. I feel tired out just watching those solo jigs!

[Tufty]

For Cotswold try Hammersmith Morris, White Rose Morris and Leeds Morris. All have Utube videos. If you have a time machine go back to the 1980s and watch South Downs Morris! Does anyone have film of them? I remember them as all being 6 ft plus and jumping about the same again, where are they now?

[Steve_freereeder]

Also for Cotswold, I have fond memories of Mr Jorrocks, a side from the Frittenden area in Kent, who were dancing in the 1980s and 1990s before age and injuries led to their retirement from the scene.

I was playing for a women's side 'The Step Sisters' (an off-shoot of Lizzie Dripping) at the time and we occasionally shared dance spots with Mr Jorrocks. They were all hefty blokes but really graceful on their feet and in the air too. They seemed to specialise in very precise slow dancing, and their musician Jessica, on pipe and tabor, would almost seem to keep them in the air until she was ready for them to land again.

Not many videos of them exist but here are a couple which I've found:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aP9DkxM1Pc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTYyslDSvt4

[Tufty]

Outstanding! These clips show why lots of us prefer a single musician for Cotswold. Keeping more musicians in sinc with the dance is a lot to ask, big band for Border or North West is fine but longsword and Cotswold seem to need a single player imo. (Also think anglo concertina better than melodeon for Cotswold  ).

[Steve Coombes]

There have been loads of great suggestions so far, but if you want to see Morris given the Riverdance treatment then you need Morris Offspring...
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvQ6DCQSAoo

[IanD]

For Cotswold try Hammersmith Morris, White Rose Morris and Leeds Morris. All have Utube videos. If you have a time machine go back to the 1980s and watch South Downs Morris! Does anyone have film of them? I remember them as all being 6 ft plus and jumping about the same again, where are they now?

Flattered that Smiffs are referred to, but the OP won't find a video of us dancing Bonny Green Garters because we don't...

[Thrupenny Bit]

Yes that's a point for Jesse:
A lot of morris sides nowadays tend to concentrate on one or two traditions ( styles named after Cotswold villages where they were first collected ).
Therefore as IanD says, Hammersmith don't dance Bonny Green, and Great Western rarely do it as well, so I doubt if you'll find anything of us dancing it either.
vheers
Q

[Howard Jones]

At risk of appearing to be a Grumpy Old (Morris) man, the "wide variety of skills" is one of my pet grumps.  So many sides I come across are clearly having a great time, but are all over the place when it comes to dancing.  Many I find are simply unwatchable. Is it because they don't care, or (more likely) that in the case of the younger sides they've never been taught proper technique?  When I were a lad we went to workshops by the likes of Roy Dommett and Tubby Reynolds, and ran the risk of bumping into Father Ken (not a man to shrink from voicing his opinion) when dancing out. Who is teaching morris now?

As for the older sides, sadly many are now past it.

And don't get me started on massed bands for Cotswold...

[Thrupenny Bit]

I had the pleasure of attending many of Roy's workshops and he had a massive effect on the Morris in general, our side and me personally.
He suggested we concentrate on one, maybe two traditions in the late '60's before I started instead of the then normal a dance from each tradition. His advice was to get to know a tradition inside out which is what, I hope, we've achieved.
I think it was one of my first Sidmouth workshops from someone else where the leader got really sniffy when asking us to do 'rtb's' and we had no idea cos we didn't do them in our Fieldtown or Bamton. That then was unheard of and deemed us being awkward s*ds!
Several people including some of my side tried to glean all possible from Roy before he died, and the Morris Federation have these manuscripts and notes to share for the greater good of Morris.
I'm not sure who will emerge to be a focus for Morris in the future, but there will never be another Roy....
Q.