A Family of Morris Dancers

Open to all

Now moved to  :

http://www.langcen.cam.ac.uk/OMorris/OMhome.htm

A Brief History

Open Morris is the newest of the three organisations which have grown up in Britain with recent revival of traditional Morris Dancing

As its name suggests, Open Morris is open to any group or individual involved in the performance of Morris Dancing or allied activities. Open Morris began in 1979 as a loose organisation of East Anglian dancers, following efforts by one of the (then) few mixed Morris sides in the country to find local friends and sympathisers.

At that time there was much rivalry between members of the all-male Morris Ring (founded in 1934) on one side and the Women's Morris Federation, which came into being in the mid 1970's on the other.

One of the few things they did appear to agree on, however, was that dancing shouldn't involve a mixing of the sexes! (Although "WMF" did later become the Morris Federation and expanded its membership to include male and mixed groups).

Almost to the suprise of the original members, interest in Open Morris began to spread further afield, and the organisation now has about eighty member sides from all over Britain, as well as a few from overseas and some individual members.

Despite earlier differences, Open Morris is now regularly involved in discussions and conferences with the other two Morris Organisations.

Teams