Morris Ring - History

History

One of their most valuable activities in the early days of the Morris Ring was to host instructional weekends where sides would teach other sides the dances and styles of the various Morris traditions. These instructionals are still an important part of the Morris Ring's annual calendar. The intention is to pass on knowledge of the dances and styles, rather than to teach any particular interpretation as inherently correct or preferable to another.

Previously many dancers had relied on reading Cecil Sharp's 5-volume "The Morris Book". This was published in installments from 1907 to 1913 and contained about 70 set dances from about 12 villages and towns. Eventually the fruit of these workshops was a new volume, "The Handbook of Morris Dancing", sometimes called "The Black Book". It was written by Lionel Bacon in 1974 as an "aide memoir", but quickly became regarded as authoritative. It contains almost 400 morris dances from over 20 locations. There was a second edition in 1986. Lionel Bacon was squire of the Morris Ring from 1962 - 1964.

At one time, the Morris Ring would sell Bacon's book only to members of the Morris Ring. Sides could join the Ring only if they were approved by existing members who set certain standards of dancing. In practice this meant that male-only teams could get hold of it. In the feminist 1970s and 1980s this drew criticisms from the Morris Federation and Open Morris, but all corners of the debate have now calmed down somewhat.