Who Are We ?

The Adelaide Morris Men as the name implies is an all male morris team. We dance both Border (from the Welsh border counties) and Cotswold (from the Cotswold region northwest of London) styles.

What is Morris Dancing

Rule 1: Believe nothing that we write here!

Quote: "The Truth is out there"

Quote: "Morris Dancing is an Alien Conspiracy"

Newspaper report "Beer Sucking Leaches Invade Earth!"

Cotswold Morris

We are currently dancing the following traditions:

Bledington is currently one of the main tradition of the side - the side dances all the collected dances and a few contemporary add-ons. Lillie Bolero was added to the repertoire in 1981 when it was borrowed from the Earls of Essex at a Cardiff instructional weekend. Princess Royal is danced as a set dance - the idea for the structure of the dance was lifted from Hammersmith Morris Men in 1985 and their version of London Pride Longborough. We also do a version of Balance the Straw - the usual dance with Bledington figures. Bean Setters, a variation of the Brackley dance was an early invention. This was taught to both the Dublin City Morris Dancers and Aberystwyth Morris in the early 1980's and I believe both teams continued dancing this dance longer then we did!
The Bledington style as we dance it evolved over a number of years - almost 15 years. Initially the tradition was taught to the side by Hugh Perry an itinerant English morris man who spent a time with the side in its formative years. This was later expanded in the size of the repertoire and "fine tuned" by Mike Bowe who mainly developed the ideas from the Handbook of Morris Dances. This was the foundation for the slow evolution of the tradition over the ensuing 15 years until the current time. Over the years the style has become distinctively that of the AMM while still maintaining the characteristics of the Bledington style. The team strives for a slow, graceful but powerful performance with plenty of lift - the emphasis being to get off the ground.
Our Foreman Geoff is always refining the style.

Adderbury is the responsibility of Dave Smith - one of three foremen in the team. The tradition is much as would be expected as Adderbury. The notable dance is our own invention "Bound for South Australia".

Hinton and Badby is being taught by (Black) Bob Pilgrim who danced with Brackley and brings a unique view of the tradition to the team.
Bampton and Sherbourne are what you would expect to see from any standard English side except perhaps a little more energetic.

Border Morris

Most of the Border repertoire consists of our own dances, the exception being Brimfield.
We usually perform a suite of dances, with one dance moving directly into the next so that the audience get 20 minutes of continuous dancing. We also decided that for the Border performances there would be no announcing or audience contact so as to create an aura of mystery and perhaps "other worldliness".
The set starts with the Three Man Doddle, followed by Brimfield, then the Four Man Doddle and our version of Upton. If we are feeling exceptionally adventurous we toss in the Six Man Doddle and St Georges (very) Cross. Why so many Doddles? Andrew, an illustrious and much loved member of the team assured the Foreman that these dances were a doddle immediately before colliding with almost every man in the set while performing them. So its in honour of Andrew that we have the Doddle.
Other Border dances we plan on getting out in the near future are another of our own, the Dance with No Name ( inventive aren't we - its just that the inventiveness runs out with the dance and we don't have any brain cells left for the names - or is it that the beer runs out and we don't have any brain cells left for the names - I think its one of those), Evesham and Dilwyn. We also sometimes throw in a Lichfield dance as well.

The Side

Our Motto: "Oh God this is hopeless !"

Contact Us:
Geoff Wark
Phone: (08) 8443 5195 (H)
Email: gfwark@chariot.net.au

Book Us for any occassion!
Ian Goldfinch
Phone: (08) 8362 4227 (H)
Phone: (08) 8226 7855 (W)
Email: goldfinch.ian@saugov.sa.go.au