Goths and Pagans are reinventing morris dancing

Sun, 11 May 2008 16:29:26 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Morris dancing is a joke, isn't it, with a hey nonny no? Beardy men with beer bellies prancing about in white stockings, waving hankies? Very twee. But try telling that to the men and women of Hunters Moon, here by the Sussex coast looking like the devilish spawn of Hell's Angels and medieval mummers. They are part of a secret revolution in morris dancing, transforming the most easily lampooned of English eccentricities.

You don't have to be a pagan to join Hunters Moon, but their symbol is a combination of the moon and the horned man. "A lot of people within the wider morris don't like or accept its connection with the pagan," says Ranger – but for him it is a spiritual experience. "You are grounding yourself, partaking of yourself as a member of the human race, and partaking of the ground you're dancing on."

One reason for the recent growth of Border morris is that it is easier to learn (while more spectacular) than other forms.

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Goths and Pagans are reinventing morris dancing