Morris Dancing FAQs

British Pathe Film Archive: Long before the advent of t.v. the only way the British public could see moving pictures of the then news stories of the day was to go to the cinema. Before the main feature there was always a 10 minute news film from British Pathe (remember the crowing cockerel?). All of the archive footage, over 3500 hours of clips covering news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970, has been digitised and is available for free on the web. You can also pay to have that footage transferred onto VHS video. All of the content is keyword seachable and a series of thumbnails and descriptive text help verify that the clip is what you wanted. Subscribers to the MDDL reported quite a lot of interesting morris content.; The catch is that, although you have to register and movie clips have to be placed in a shopping cart, you are not creating an Amazon.com style account and the site uses cookies to keep track of your selections. I understand the technology works well with current verions of Windows and Media Player, but my experience using a Macintosh was not perfect. The shopping cart seems to forget both my selections (especially if I have more than one in the cart) and occasionally forgets who I registered as. True accounts with proper wishlists, etc would be better. Still this is a facinating web site and ultimately worth the small hassle. British Pathe says that they will be creating Quicktime 6.0 video files of all the stories in the archive to both preview and license in the near future.; • Home: <http://www.britishpathe.com/index.cfm>; • Categories: Archives/Libraries : Videos

FAQ Entry Updated: 2003-06-17

Dancilla: Dancilla is an archive of over 600 folk dance videos. Most are in Windows Media web video format with a fewer number in QuickTime. File sizes are largely 6-12 megabytes and have adequate video and audio clarity to follow the dance. Videos may be searched by dance name and have clickable links to locate videos by country of origin or by type.; Although the stated focus of the site is on German folk activities (and the author's companion Volkstanz website reflects this to an even greater degree), there are over 100 morris dance videos, largely taken by the author at west-coast United States morris events. Dances are attributed to team and correctly categorized by tradition. The author is also soliciting contributions of videos in return for digitizing them and putting them on the web.; • Morris Search: <http://www.dancilla.com/search.asp?crit=morris>; • Homepage: <http://www.dancilla.com/>; • Volkstanz: <http://www.volkstanz.at/English/Folkdance.htm>; • Maintainer: Mario Herger <mherger@mherger.com>; • Categories: Archives/Libraries : Videos

FAQ Entry Updated: 2003-06-17

Morris, Sword, and Clog Dancing: English and American Performances 1976 - present: Beginning in 1976, when the Headington Quarry Morris Dancers performed on the Mall in Washington, DC for the US Bicentennial celebration, Dr. Tony Barrand and his students have documented English and North American groups performing the Morris, Sword, and Clog dances in public venues on film and video. The front page notes that the archive provides a "unique chronological record of change and non-change of dance movement and accompaniment-style through aging and generational replacement of dancers." The film quality, especially from the early years, is not always the best but it provides an essential record of the early history of morris in the US.; • Homepage: <http://www.bu.edu/dbin/dance>; • Announcement: <http://www.americanmorrisnews.org/current_issue/tonybarrandv25n1digitalvideoresearcharchive.html>; • Maintainer: Tony Barrand <barrand@adelphia.net>; • Categories: Archives/Libraries : History : Videos

FAQ Entry Updated: 2005-04-05