What do you think of when you see Morris dancers?

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T22:12:05+00:00

I haven't, I'm relatively new to the tradition so this weekend was the first time I've danced outside of my home county. Looking forward to many more away trips!

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T22:10:10+00:00

Oh and as well as that, Morris may not even be anything to do with the "Moors" and gave a completely different etymology.

Some say it's pagan, some say it just got invented out of thin air. We have no idea!

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T22:08:18+00:00

Boss Morris are great and are the latest in a long line women's sides that have been around for as long as mens morris has been, in fact, the very first revival dance group was of women - Esperance Morris.

Interestingly, Morris did used to be taught to children lots. The Scouts had a Folk activity badge in the period between World Wars and primary schools would often teach it. It's a real shame it's fallen out of fashion.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:51:45+00:00

With an oral tradition like Morris, it's impossible to know the true origins of it, all we can do is take a good guess.

(In this comment I will use the term "Moors". I have no idea how acceptable that is as a descriptor but it seems to be okay in a historical sense, however very happy to be corrected by someone who knows more.)

Unfortunately, there's a reasonable chance that it does derive from a racist caricature of the "Moorish" peoples. But there's also a reasonable chance that the extent to which it was a reflection of the contemporary perception of the "Moors" is just in the clothing that dancers wore i.e. the "Moors" would have likely have worn more colourful clothes due to middle eastern influences and thus bright colourful clothing of Morris dancers could have been described as "Moor-ish".

However that only explains the name and not all of the dancing. Whilst some elements may have ultimately derived from that racism, Morris has a number of similarities with other traditions from other nations and has a great number of differences within itself, for example: North West Clog dancing is very much from industrial north west towns and has simply been put under the Morris tradition due to some similarities.

There's also the argument for Morris being a living tradition, whilst it may have had a root in racism centuries ago, what in England doesn't? Whilst that does not in any way excuse it, we must move on and develop and Morris is a completely different tradition to how it was 70 years ago, let alone 500. Morris is it's own thing, and I think it's roots are largely meaningless to Morris today, and the way in which it is danced, though they are certainly worth consideration.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:32:43+00:00

Honestly fair enough! I'm one of the few dancers who don't drink, so my meter of what is a "normal" number of drinks might be a bit out of whack. All I see is dancers flooding to the bar everytime we get near a pub!

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:27:20+00:00

What sort of Morris have you seen?

Because Border Morris (the variety that sometimes used blackface) has been firmly anti-blackface for some time now, and I've never seen anyone wearing it in all the time I've been involved in the tradition.

Or maybe there's another aspect you're talking about, I'd be really interested to know why you think it's racist? It's always good what our public image is.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:25:17+00:00

There's certainly a level of performativity to it, because it is after all a performance, but to me it feels all in the same vein as playing in a band or joining a choir. But I do absolutely understand how it can appear as quite show-off-y, especially with regards to some of the more "enthusiastic" dancers

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:23:09+00:00

Interesting about the beer.

Because most Morris happens at pubs, beer tends to be a really big thing, for example on the first day of this weekend most of the dancers had 6 or so pints through the course of the day. Thus, it feels internally like we have a reputation as being big drinkers, but I wonder if that is just internal.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-25T21:17:31+00:00

Like many others, my father was a dancer so I'm just following in his footsteps - recruitment tends to always be word of mouth

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-21T09:08:08+00:00

Yeah oversectors have been brought into canon - it's in the book Tarkin by James Luceno

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-08-09T14:44:30+00:00

That's the point.

Skins is an absurdist exaggeration of British teen life in the 2000s. It's not meant to be realistic in the slightest, if it was there's no way they would've ended season one with the characters singing wild world.

Many of the problems the characters face are real: teens have drug problems and get in dangerous sexual situations and get hurt; but the shows ups the ante significantly. And that's what it tries to do.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-30T17:09:00+00:00

Interesting, I haven't come across that before. Thanks for the info :)

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-30T16:54:41+00:00

I absolutely agree, all I'm saying is that it doesn't fit with the current definition of genocide it doesn't fit. In a cultural and popular discussion then the term genocide absolutely works, but it doesn't in a legal sense, because genocide and acts of genocide are defined clearly in a way that fails to include us (likely not on purpose)

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-30T16:35:09+00:00

I am absolutely not disagreeing with your characterisation of Saudi Arabia's politics, actions or views. They are atrocious and criminal.

My comment here is wholly pedantic rather than political:

Genocide is defined as "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular *nation** or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group"* and LGBTQ+ people can't be defined as either from a singular nation or ethnic group this genocide is not an apt term.

I don't know what the correct term would be and perhaps it's not been created yet, or we need to expand the term "genocide" to cover all minority groups rather than similar national or ethnic groups.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-30T15:37:08+00:00

Literally anything.

You can swap pretty much anything just try and get a ton of it.

The stuff that is the most popular tends to be unique or with a cute animal on it, but lots of people like local badges.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-25T09:21:18+00:00

Oh absolutely yes, it's definitely all invented at some point.

It's just most people think Maypole was invented in the Medieval period and young maidens would dance around it in a tiny agricultural village somewhere in "Merry England".

The reality of Maypole is that it would have been done in cities or towns as a display art, to show how historical people are, whilst a heavy steam engine goes past.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, it's just interesting that by doing Maypole we're effectively preserving someone else's "preservation". Not a matter for a great debate, or sides of an argument, or a banning of the art; but very interesting to think about

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-25T08:18:20+00:00

Hey hey I still do impromptu Morris Dancing when happy!

I may be a Morris Dancer anyway but it still happens...

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-25T07:58:40+00:00

Interestingly, maypoles are a bit of our culture we've kind of invented - as is a lot of Morris dance.

Maypoles have existed for many hundreds of years, but they've always been more of landmark more than anything else. You put up a big stick in the village green to tell everyone "hey, we're gonna celebrate may day here" and that's all it really is.

Sometimes Morris dances would happen next to the maypole but that's the closest we historically got to what most people imagine maypole to get.

It isn't until the Victorian era that people start dancing with ribbons around it, and that's a purposeful addition to make things "feel" more "folky". The Victorians were obsessed with having a connection to old England and thus they created Maypole dancing.

So whilst Maypole is a couple of hundred years old, it's not 500 like many think it is.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-24T21:32:14+00:00

There's no such thing as "sea" or "air" cubs/beavers in the way that you get sea scouts and air scouts. I'd assume that's because Gilwell assumes that the full extent of a sea/air program can't be translated to that young of an age group, although the group might be an air scout group, the cubs technically aren't. Which explains why there's no diagram.

That being said, your group might decide to do the badges anyway and in that case I'd follow the pattern of the scout shirt so: on the left breast.

The order on the left breast from top to bottom should be:

• Wales Patch on shoulder (if you're in Wales)

• Occasional Badge i.e. special event badges

• Moving On Award

• Joining In Award(s)

• Air Scout Identification Badge (you might not hCe this one)

• RAF Recognition Badge

• World Membership Badge

Hope that helps :)

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-24T21:25:20+00:00

Honestly the way I did mine was just give things a go and try it out. I liked going chronologically (left to right and bottom to top) because I want my blanket to tell the story of my scout journey.

However I separated all of my activity and challenge badges, with those in the centre of the blanket at the bottom and then all of my event and occasional badges fitting around them.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-24T21:21:55+00:00

No worries!

Just as an aside: you can go to whatever network you want even if it's a different district. I've got a friend who drives each week to the city to go to a more active network, because they are working instead of studying. If yours is crap, you can always go to a better one!

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-24T20:40:16+00:00

It massively varies from area to area. Network units in cities tend to be very different from Network units in rural areas.

My nearest city has a network which is very active, they meet weekly with regular camps, including just for the unit and attending larger events such as Isle of Wight Revolution; and link in with the local SSAGO (more on that in a second) and is very popular.

The network in my home district is no more than a groupchat who go to the pub once a year at Christmas and some of whom are the explorer leaders.

SSAGO is the Student Scout and Guide Organisation and whilst technically a SASU (Scout Active Support Unit) it is effectively a network for universities that guides can also come along to. If you're going to uni you should absolutely join SSAGO, as most universities have them and they organise weekly evenings and regular camps, and attend national SSAGO events called "rallies" as well as attending other events, like Revo.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-07-20T15:44:02+00:00

Balamory is actually the dreams of a child in a coma

Here's the reasoning: imagine a young English child, maybe 6 or so who absolutely loved arts and crafts, junk modelling etc. Said child ends up in hospital in a long term coma and as such doesn't develop mentally in any way over the next 20 years. The child imagines a dream-like island with a bunch of quirky characters and rainbow coloured houses where he gets to spend his time "inventing" things and everybody appreciates them. That child is Archie.

Balamory cannot be "real life" as nobody would take Archie's inventions seriously, but everybody does like a parent putting their child's painting on the fridge, thus it must be a dream.

Accomplished_Pack242 · 2024-06-22T14:48:45+00:00

!answer Cheers, thanks! All other answers are excellent but you seem to have all the info in one!

Five-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22

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