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Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers, usually wearing bell pads on their shins. Implements such as sticks, swords and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers. In a small number of dances for one or two people, steps are performed near and across a pair of clay tobacco pipes laid one across the other on the floor. The earliest known and surviving English written mention of Morris dance is dated to 1448, and records the payment of seven shillings to Morris dancers by the Goldsmiths' Company in London.〔M. Heaney, ‘The Earliest Reference to the Morris Dance?’,''Folk Music Journal'', vol. 8, no. 4 (2004), 513-515〕 Further mentions of Morris dancing occur in the late 15th century, and there are also early records such as visiting bishops' "Visitation Articles" mention sword dancing, guising and other dancing activities, as well as mumming plays. While the earliest records invariably mention "Morys" in a court setting, and a little later in the Lord Mayors' Processions in London, it had adopted the nature of a folk dance performed in the parishes by the mid 17th century. Outside England, there are around 150 Morris sides (or teams) in the United States. British expatriates form a larger part of the Morris tradition in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Hong Kong. There are isolated groups in other countries〔for example those in Utrecht and Helmond (Morrisdansgroep Helmond ) Netherlands; the Arctic Morris Group of Helsinki, (Helsinki Morrisers ) Finland and Stockholm, Sweden; as well as in Cyprus; 〕 ==Name and origins== The name is first recorded in the mid-15th century as ', ', i.e. "Moorish dance". The term entered English via Flemish ''mooriske danse'' Comparable terms in other languages are German ''Moriskentanz'' (also from the 15th century), French ''morisques'', Croatian ''moreška'', and ''moresco'', ''moresca'' or ''morisca'' in Italy and Spain. The modern spelling ''Morris-dance '' first appears in the 17th century.〔OED, s.v. "morris dance" and "Morisk". D. Arnold, ''The New Oxford Companion to Music'', vol. 2 (Oxford University Press, 1983), p. 1203.〕 It is unclear why the dance was so named, "unless in reference to fantastic dancing or costumes", i.e. the deliberately "exotic" flavour of the performance.〔OED, etymonline.com.〕 The English dance thus apparently arose as part of a wider 15th-century European fashion for supposedly "Moorish" spectacle, which also left traces in Spanish and Italian folk dance. The means and chronology of the transmission of this fashion is now difficult to trace; the ''Great London Chronicle'' records "spangled Spanish dancers" performing an energetic dance before Henry VII at Christmas of 1494, but Heron's accounts also mention "pleying of the mourice dance" four days earlier, and the attestation of the English term from the mid-15th century establishes that there was a "Moorish dance" performed in England decades prior to 1494.〔Billington, Sandra, ''A Social History of the Fool'', Harvester Press, 1984, pp. 36, 37.〕 It is suggested that the tradition of rural English dancers blackening their faces may be a reference to the Moors, miners, or a disguise worn by dancing beggars.〔Lola Okolosie, ("Cameron and the Morris dancers: a sign of our nationalistic mood" ), ''The Guardian'', 14 October 2014.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Morris dance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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