Morris Ring

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The Morris Ring is one of three umbrella groups for Morris dance sides in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1934 by 6 teams: Greensleeves, Cambridge, East Surrey, Letchworth, Oxford and Thaxted. They meet each Spring Bank holiday weekend at Thaxted for two days of dance, a popular tourist attraction. They have grown to about 250 sides today, and another 400 associate clubs. One of their most valuable activities was to host instructional weekends where sides would teach other teams the correct way to dance their own particular traditions. Previously many dancers had relied on reading Cecil Sharp's 5-volume "The Morris Book". This was published in instalments 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 memoire", but quickly became 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.

There is something of a Masonic secrecy about the Morris Ring, as they 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 70s and 80s this drew criticisms from the Morris Federation and Open Morris, but all corners of the debate have now calmed down somewhat. Recently the Morris Ring organised a CD of Morris Dance tunes called "The Magic of Morris" It contained - shock, horror - tunes played by women's morris sides.

The dances performed by members of The Morris Ring are not confined to the officially recognised traditional dances. Occasionally teams will supplement their repertoire by inventing a dance. The steps might be modelled on an existing dance, but danced in the style of their own locality. Sometimes they are given whimsical names.

The Morris Ring Archives are the largest collection of morris/ sword related material in the world, eclipsing but not totally duplicating the morris documents held at Cecil Sharp House. A small part is available online, but more web access is expected within a few years. A journal "The Morris Dancer" has been published irregularly since 1978. Other major events in the dancing calendar are the "Dancing England Rapper Tournament" (DERT) and "Dancing England" (since 1982). Several Ring sides attend both events.