Cotswold morris dances executed with a style as only the Adelaide Men can.
An informative insight into the life and times of men's morris in South Australia.

The Adelaide Morris Men as the name implies is an all male morris team. We dance mostly dances from the Cotswold region of England. We also from time to time dance what are loosely called Border dances, a mixture of dances originating from the more Northern areas of England and dances we have written ourselves in the same style.

What is Morris Dancing

The definitions of morris are many and varied as is the history. It is English. It is not folk except in the broadest sense. It is a dance form often married with local ceremonies which may explain to some extent its longevity. But for all the variations on a theme there is no mistaking a morris team when one sees one. Whether it is Cotswold morris with the usual bells, hankies and sticks, North West morris with clogs, garlands and "twiddlers", Rapper and Longsword or Border morris it is all unmistakably morris and unmistakably English.

It is energetic, it is vibrant, it is public and it is fun.

It is an excuse to dance and enjoy music and song with friends, even those friends you have just met, usually over a pint.

It is a way of meeting those of the opposite sex and / or gender. It is a way of meeting people of the same sex and / or gender.

It is a way of life. It is a pastime you fit into a busy schedule.

If you seek a serious discourse on morris and its history please follow one of the links from this site and it will undoubtedly lead to some interesting reading.

Cotswold Morris

We are currently dancing the following traditions:

The tradition of Bledington has been the mainstay in the repertoire over the life of the Adelaide Morris Men and before. The team dances all the collected dances and a few contemporary additions.

Lillie Bolero was added to the repertoire in 1983 being borrowed from the Earls of Essex at a Cardiff instructional weekend.

Princess Royal is a Bledington version of London Pride (Longborough) – adopted after seeing the Hammersmith Morris Men in 1981 performing the Longborough dance.

We also borrow dances from other traditions and convert them into the (our) Bledington style. Dances such as Balance the Straw, Orange in Bloom and Bean Setters have seen their way into the Bledington Repertoire as has Country Gardens and Black Joke. Bean Setters, a variation of the Brackley was taught to both the Dublin City Morris Dancers and Aberystwyth Morris in the early 1980's and both teams continued dancing this dance longer then we did!

Our Bledington style as now danced has changed since it was first danced in Adelaide.

Initially a few but notable Bledington dances were taught to the side by Hugh Perry an itinerant English morris man who danced with the forerunners of the Adelaide Morris Men. Trunkles, Gallant Hussar, Cuckoos Nest and Young Collins were the extent of our contact with the tradition from 1977 to 1980 .

This was later expanded in the size of the repertoire and "fine tuned" by Mike Bowe and Geoff Wark around 1981. The style was mainly developed from an interpretation of the description of the tradition contained in the Handbook of Morris Dances and other available literature.

The style of dancing Bledington came in for a revision in the early 1990’s when a critical eye was passed over the performance of the dances and the weak points of the performance were identified and removed or refined. This overcame many of the inherent problems in performing Bledington and resulted in a stronger presentation.

Rather than a gradual evolution of a tradition the dance style has been consciously developed to suit what we wanted to present as Bledington, how we wanted to perform the tradition highlighting the strong points of the dances whilst retaining to spirit or "feel" of the tradition.

The team strives for a slow, graceful but powerful performance with plenty of lift.

Adderbury has been developed and taught by Dave Smith - one of three foremen in the team. The tradition is much as would be expected as Adderbury.

The notable dance is our own invention "Bound for South Australia".

History

Hinton and Badby is being taught by (Black) Bob Pilgrim who danced with Brackley and brings a unique view of the tradition to the team.

Bampton has recently seen a revision in style in an attempt to instil a greater degree of vigour and movement whilst attempting to maintain a sense of gracefulness.

Border Morris

Our Border repertoire consists of our own dances combined with some more recognisable dances such as Brimfield, Upton on Severn, Dilwyn and Fanny Frail.

In a Border performance we usually perform a suite of dances with each dance flowing into the next. The set usually commences with the Three Man Doddle, followed by Brimfield, then the Four Man Doddle and St George's Cross.

The Doddle is a unique dance form which gradually took form over a number of months. Doddle refers to any dance or dance form, comprising of a series of intricate and co-ordinated movements that can be performed by any person without any practice or description of the dance.

The term was first applied to our dances by Andrew, an illustrious and much loved member of the team, who, after missing every practice in which the above dances were created and practised, assured the Foreman that these dances were a doddle immediately before colliding with almost every man in the set during the performance.

Andrew felt it was just the enthusiasm and exuberance of the first Border outing of the year although most of the team felt it had more to do with the amount of intoxicating beverage consumed immediately before the performance.

In honour of Andrew that we have the Doddle.

Other Border dances we have in our repertoire from time to time are proper version of Upton on Severn, the Dance with No Name ( inventive aren't we - its just that the inventiveness runs out with the dance and we don't have any brain cells left for the names - or is it that the beer runs out and we don't have any brain cells left for the names - I think its one of those), and Dilwyn. We also throw in a Lichfield dance as well.

The Side

Our Motto: "Oh God this is hopeless !"

The motto originated back in 1983 during the National Folk Festival when the AMM were host to various morris teams from all over Australia. Geoff Wark and John Stirling were fortunate enough to have members of the Free Settlers Morris from Perth camped in the living room. JS made numerous attempts to rouse them from their slumber to ready themselves for the days dancing. Each time he noticed one very eager and obviously awake male dancer roll quickly from a position that is known in Morris circles as the "face to face" figure. After three or four attempts had been thwarted by Mr Stirling a plaintive cry was heard "Of God this is hopeless".

Of course, from time to time, the motto takes on a more contemporary meaning in relation to our performance.

Book Us for any occasion!
The Bagman (Roger)
Phone: 08 8298 1588 (H)
Email: amm_bookings@morris.org.au

The Squire (Ian)
08 8362 4227

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