Way of the Wryd (WOW) Border Morris a Pagan friendly mixed family side was formed by myself (Richard Dowling) and my partner Zia Dowling-Haigh. We started our own side because we wanted something local to us that was easy to get to, up to now we've had to travel to Nottingham or Leicester to join a side that we could both dance with.

We dance in the Border tradition, there are least five other traditions that come under the banner of Morris that I'm aware of, there maybe more.

We meet every Thursday evening in the function room of the Old Pack Horse, 4 Woodgate, Loughborough, from 8.00pm to 10.00pm.

We are looking for both dancers and musicians who want to have fun dancing to and playing live music.We are looking to create new dances as well as dancing the traditional ones. On the musical front we're looking for players of acoustic instruments, this is solely a matter of practicality as most of the dancing during the season will be done outside generally out of range of mains electricity.

The side is open to families as we'd like to keep the Morris a living tradition by teaching the next generation so they can teach the next generation so it evolves and grows. In terms of the age group from 10 yrs up, this on the grounds that by about 10 an individual has developed sufficient co-ordination to handle the dance sequences. If anyone under eighteen wants to practice/dance with us they must be accompanied by a responsible adult usually a parent.

A bit of History:
The Border Style of Morris originated from the border counties of England and Wales. It was probably started by labourers who were laid off during the winter months and used it as a means of supplementing there income over the lean period when there was little or no work on the farms.

These days we paint our faces with water based stage makeup. Originally any substance that would have given a dark finish would have been used for example coal dust, mud or burnt cork.

The purpose of the painted faces was to disguise the dancers because what they were doing was deemed to be begging and against the law. It also meant that when they danced at the big houses the owners would not recognise them, particularly when the residents of said house may be your current, future or previous employer.

The money collected was the split between the dancers, it is said that if the side felt that the house holder had not been sufficiently generous or refused to pay following a performance the garden would be trashed on the way out. Legend has it that on at least one occasion an owner of a house which had been landscaped by Capability Brown, having offended a Morris Side, awoke the following morning to find their land returned to ploughed fields.

The above history is open to debate on the grounds that until the work of Cecil Sharp and others like him, there was little or no overall written record of Morris history, dances or traditions.

We do know that Morris is old because there is reference in medieval documents to Morris dancers being engaged to dance for royalty and paid a handsome sum(somebody I met quoted me chapter and verse on this thought I cannot recall who it was or the fine detail).

There are probably remnants of older folk or ritual dance in some of the dance moves used in today's Morris, of which I'm convinced, yet with no written record there is no proof.

Richard Dowling