Story: Cultural dance

Morris dancing (1st of 5)

Nelson Morris Dancers perform 'As the tide was aflow'n' at Dunedin Railway Station during an annual event,  the National Morris Tour, in January 2012. Generally, Morris dancers wear white, but here the dancers are wearing the black of the 'border morris', originating in the Welsh-English border area, and have blackened faces.  Variations of morris dancing are found in Europe, India and the Middle East, but it is the English variant that arrived in New Zealand. In 2014 New Zealand had 10 morris dance groups. They met together during the National Morris Tour, which took place at different places around the country each year. It also attracted dancers from Australia, England and the USA.

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Courtesy of Nelson Morris

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How to cite this page:

Megan Cook, 'Cultural dance - European cultural dance', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/video/44737/morris-dancing (accessed 19 March 2024)

Story by Megan Cook, published 22 Oct 2014