Black Joak Morris

About Black Joak Morris

Black Joak Morris was started in October 2004 by a group of lads who felt that Sydney deserved another Morris side.

For too long it was felt that Sydney languished in a cultural vacuum. This vacuum, like much of Sydney, needed filling.

Consequently on a warm Wednesday night, 6 unsuspecting total strangers were coerced from their womb-like niches in suburbia and tricked into performing ancient, arcane and deeply significant rituals to the accompaniment of some demented musicians and their archaic instruments.

After much discussion, arguments and forceful persuasion the name Black Joak was selected (if you had seen us dance you would know why that name sprang to mind) and the red rose of England was selected as our emblem ( Salty already had the badges embroidered and they were cheap). The colours of our Baldric are deeply significant and red and black were specifically chosen for their cultural attachment and because the material for them was on special at Spotlight that week.

After a number of intensive training sessions where junior members were introduced into the delights of "hook legs", "galley" and "whose shout is it now?", the BJM had its first outing at the National Folk Festival in Canberra in March 2005. The outing was a resounding success and the Morris cognoscenti were heard to remark that in a darkened room, what they were presented with would have passed for Morris dancing

Despite this overwhelming accolade the side has persevered and lurched onwards and downwards into new feets (that is a pun) of terpsichore

In keeping with the spirit of the twin deities PC and EO, we are a gender non-specific side and besides if we didn't let them dance with us we wouldn't have enough members (that is also a pun)

We are always looking for new dancers so if you feel you can tell the difference between guinness and cider, you are just the type of person we are looking for. Please contact us to arrange for your obligation free quote on becoming a Morris Dancer. If not completely satisfied within 14 days, your partner is doing it wrong or your batteries are flat and your liver will cheerfully be refunded

About Morris Dancing in General

Morris has been around for a long time. Something with the same name is referred to in some incredibly old documents, but we doubt if it looked much like the Morris danced today. It may be that its origins are in the dances performed by the Moors ("Moorish dancing") and seen in Europe until the end of their occupation of Spain. Something very similar is still danced in the Basque Country. We think that all the stuff about fertility and crops is romantic nonsense on a par with Camelot, Merlin and Excalibur. The link with fun, beer and collecting - an important source of income in hard agricultural times - is closer to the real mark for us.

Morris developed and evolved over the years into the various forms and styles you can see today. Henry VIII was an enthusiastic dancer. William Kemp, an erstwhile colleague of William Shakespeare Morris danced from London to Norwich; a long distance record which still stands. By the end of the 19th century Morris dancing was in danger of fading away as England consolidated its urban industrial economy. Whole teams of dancers from some villages died while fighting in the first world war. Things were getting critical! Cecil Sharp and his colleagues did their best to write down what they could find, and what you see today is largely inspired by their turn of the century work. As a result, most teams dress in a sort of pastiche of 19th century agricultural labourer's clothing and commonly dance to Victorian tunes, with some more ancient ones thrown in.