Windsor Morris

About

Windsor Morris is a friendly, energetic and enthusiastic group who enjoy dancing together and taking their dances to a variety of audiences. Come and watch them perform in Windsor town centre!

About Windsor Morris

As our name suggests, we are based in Windsor, home to the magnificent castle, one of The King's official residences, which is portrayed in our logo.

The side was founded in 1974, which makes us one of the longest established women’s morris teams in the country.

We are a friendly, energetic and enthusiastic group who enjoy dancing together and taking our dances to a variety of audiences. We get together every week, on a Wednesday evening, to practice, teach new dancers and musicians, and invent new dances.

Our dances are based on the styles performed at the end of the nineteenth century in the Cotswold villages of Badby and Brackley. We perform to the lively music of the melodeon, accompanied by an uplifting drumbeat. We have adapted these styles to provide an exciting spectacle and aim to dance in a lively and energetic manner. We also like to create new dances - like our predecessors, we are keeping morris dancing alive by adapting it.

In 2005 we adopted a new ‘Tradition’ (style of dance steps and figures), based on Minneapolis-on-Charles, a style developed by The Commonwealth Morris Men in the USA. We first saw them dance it at the Marlboro Morris Ale in 1983 and learned the details from Tim Radford at an Advanced Morris Weekend some twenty years later! In homage to the original, we call it Windsor-on-Thames.

In summer we perform at venues in and around Windsor and further afield at festivals, and as guests of other Morris sides.  Check out our programme on www.windsormorris.org.uk for more details of our local Windsor tours. 

We are easily spotted in our sparkling white kit, featuring a green and white rosette plus a splash of colour from our green, red and yellow arm ribbons.  Watch out for our ‘Fools’, who act as our MCs and can give us a noisy whack with the bladder if we step out of line - Cherry, with the Round Tower hat, and Sally, given to punning limericks.

Taster Sessions

Every autumn, we run free evening taster sessions so you too can come along and find out what it’s all about.  The dates this year are 20th and 27th Sept and 4th Oct 2023.

You can find us at the Gardeners Hall, St Leonards Rd, Windsor, SL4 3DR.

Please contact us for further details or if you would like to come along.

All images courtesy Ben Potton.