The Evolution of Dance: Goth Morris Dancing
I often talk about the way that dances evolve, the way that they influence each other. Last night, in fact, I watched an excellent performer named Arielle do a hip-hop/bellydance fusion piece (she was also a competitor in a local So You Think You Can Dance competition, featuring Hok, interview forthcoming). Some dances are meant to be joined, and complement each other well.
I’m not so sure that this new turn of Morris Dancing is a good thing, however. According to this article in the UK Independent, there is a movement to take the traditional white-hanky-waving bell-jangling wholesome Morris Dance and turn it into, as the reporter put it, “the devilish spawn of Hell’s Angels and medieval mummers.”
It’s an interesting article, and you can learn a lot about Morris Dancing - with the caveat that while a lot of people have opinions about it, nobody really knows what it’s about. The interesting thing is the new generation, coming in with skulls on their hats and purple lipstick and embracing heartily the sexual and pagan aspects of the dance. It will be interesting to see what the old guard pagans make of that.
I have close friends in Minnesota who are part of a Morris Dancing team, and they also embrace the sexual and pagan aspects - in fact, they have a longstanding arrangement as the official Morris Dancers for the Smitten Kitten, an feminist sex-positive store. As for the pagan, well, as Wil Stryk (and what an apt name for a guy who operates an accordion for people hitting sticks together) put it to me, “We don’t really believe that we have to dance on May Day in order for the sun to come up the next day.”
“But if it didn’t….we’d feel really bad.”
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