English
Morris Dancing
Try it, you’ll
like it !
Prairie Waves
Morris of Omaha, Nebraska, welcomes new dancers and musicians. We rehearse
on Monday evenings at 7, usually in a church basement near 26th & Woolworth
in Omaha (Grace Lutheran Church, 1326 South 26th Street, but call to verify
before attending). We perform several times a year, in Omaha and
other midwestern cities. For more information about joining the team,
or if you're interested in booking a performance for a party or fair, please
call David Nichols (280-2986 work, or 553-2562 home).
Morris dancing
derives from ancient ceremonies in celebration of the seasons, especially
the solstices, that were continued in small communities in England through
the centuries until medieval times. Though the ceremonies died out, the
dancing continued. Morris dancers typically performed in their own
town with occasional forays to neighboring villages to enliven seasonal
events with music, color and ritual.
The Industrial
Revolution radically altered the life-ways of the English countryside with
the result
of near total abandonment of most Morris traditions.
By the time interest was rekindled at the turn of the century (primarily
through the efforts of the folk musicologist Cecil Sharp) only a few Morris
teams survived to perform dances. Many dances were then reconstructed from
the memories of the few surviving Morris men. There are now several
hundred Morris teams in England and dozens more in America, each carrying
on the tradition in its own way.
