About Black Annis – Black Annis Morris

History of the side

Black Annis was formed some time around 1982 (if we had known how long we would be around, we might have been more careful to note the date.) We are an all-women team or “side”, named after Leicester’s famous witch who used to live in a cave in the Dane Hills area. We wear purple, green and white (Suffragette colours) and have a bit of a reputation for being somewhat feisty. We have mellowed somewhat as we have grown up and although still feminists (what sensible woman isn’t) we are slightly less loud and hard drinking than we used to be.

The Events

Molly Dancing at Cheltenham Folk Festival

The whole point of learning the dances is to be able to perform them, so those wishing to join us need to learn to overcome their shyness and embarrassment about being seen by people they know. We accept paid bookings (eg for local summer fetes etc) and arrange our own dance spots at local pubs. We often invite other teams to join us at these. We also get invited to dance at events organised by other sides, and at various folk festivals. We socialise at the pub after practice and have lively Annual General Meetings although the agenda is the same every year. A highlight of the year is our Christmas dinner at which we sing, play music and indulge in daredevil forfeits.

The dancing

Showing solidarity with William Morris in Oxford

Morris dancing takes various forms, depending on whereabouts in the country it was traditionally danced and “collected” (or written down). It includes Border Morris (from the Welsh borders), North West (clog dancing from the Lancashire mill towns) Rapper (sword dancing from the North East), Molly (from the fens) and Cotswold (the well known hanky and stick dances from the Cotswolds) but this is not an exhaustive list. We perform Cotswold Morris in the summer months and Molly dances in the winter.