Our local morris dance team, Rainbow Morris, is celebrating their 25th anniversary and had a celebration in Roberts Park. They were joined by several other dance teams for an informal afternoon of dancing on the promenade beside the bandstand. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm but not uncomfortably hot. I really enjoyed watching and there were plenty of other onlookers making the most of the afternoon's fun. Rainbow Morris's dances are in the North West tradition, dances that developed in the local industrial towns east and west of the Pennines, using decorated sticks, garlands and traditionally danced in beribboned clogs. Dance is always evolving and the scarf dance in my photos was choreographed by one of the group members specially for one of the Saltaire Festivals, when there was a 'knitting' theme.
I find I enjoy North-west Clog Morris dancing more and more. There are some nice videos of them in action for anyone with the time to Google Rainbow Morris.
ReplyDeleteThat looks like great fun, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteThe most colorful Morris dancers I have ever seen. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteWomen! Most of these troupes are men, aren't they?
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