Styles of Morris Dance

Six types of Morris dances are known today. These styles derived their names from the place of their origin.

Cotswold morris

Cotswold morris is performed in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. This dance is characterized by the use of handkerchiefs or sticks to follow the hand movements. According to Lionel Bacon Cotswold morris tradition springs from the villages of Adderbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Brackley,Abingdon, Bampton, Badby, Bidford, Bledington, Campden, Bucknell, Chipping Ducklington, Eynsham, Headington Quarry, Oddington, Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Sherbourne, Ilmington, Stanton Harcourt, Kirtlington, Leafield, Longborough, and Wheatley.

North West morris

North West Morris has a military style. This dance form is very unique. It always took mixed and female sides as well. The dance is accompanied with Clogs or a wicker hoop held over the dancer’s head. The end of the nineteenth century led the acquisition of Lancashire tradition young girls usually associated with mills and nonconformist chapels. But the end of World War saw jazz dancers. Further that got converted into pom pom dancers.

Molly Dancing from East Anglia

Molly dance generally performed on Plough Monday, has dancers dressed in work boots and one Molly man dressed as a woman. Another similar dance performance is Vessel Cupping. It was danced by gypsy ploughboys in sets of three or four in the East Riding of Yorkshire until the 1920s.

Border Morris from the English-Welsh border

This is a much simpler and more vigorous style. The dancers dance with blackened faces (or colored faces). E. C. Cawte in his article on Morris Dance written in 1963 used the term border morris for the first time. This included morris dance traditions of Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Worcestershire, mainly the countries located on the border.

Longsword dancing from Yorkshire and south Durham
Rapper or Short sword dancing from Northumberland and Co. Durham

Sword Dancing is practised in many parts of the world. This type of Morris dance includes both rapper sword and longsword traditions. These swords used in the dance are props not the real swords. The size of sword and the usage in dance in both Long Sword and the Rapper vary.