Morris dancers

Winster Morris Dancers, Winster Wakes, Derbyshire, 4 July 1908. Photograph taken during one of British musicologist Cecil Sharp's expeditions to collect English folk music and dances. The Morris is a...

English Folk Dance - Morris Dance

English Morris Dancers

Morris dancing has been practised for over 500 years in the UK, though it is largely dismissed as an eccentric, cultish hobby. Photographer Morgan O’Donovan meets the men who are trying to keep the tradition alive

Morris Dancer - Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers.

Morris dancing in the evening on the esplanade.

From all-female sides to youth teams and an appearance at the Brit awards, photographer Rachel Adams has been chronicling England’s oldest surviving rural tradition, and seeing how it has found a place in 21st-century Britain

Emma Thompson dressed up as a Morris dancer as she supported her husband Greg Wise at the premiere of his new film Morris: A Life With Bells On.

Witnesses claim the group, from Alvechurch in Worcestershire, were heckled and threatened by a minority of onlookers during performances near the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham.

Morris dancers, early 1900s, England