Worcestershire Monkey is our famous signature dance which has become a popular Border Morris dance worldwide. The dance was devised by Martin Hallett of Wicket Brood and is danced to the music Weasels Revenge composed by Jan Hurst also of Wicket Brood. Worcestershire Monkey is a dance for eight people with influences from Pershore in Worcestershire while the Monkey Hey is from an old Iffy Morris dance called Chinese Monkey.
Worcestershire Monkey is a regular part of our performance. We sometimes also perform a Mass Monkey when we meet up with other Border Morris Sides at festivals or a Day of Dance. A Mass Monkey is when multiple sides perform our dance Worcestershire Monkey at the same time, in one long continuous line of dancers. It can be an awe inspiring sight to behold and is, in our opinion 😉 , a spectacular development of the best of English Border Morris dancing. The record, so far, for the largest number of sets in a Mass Monkey is believed to be seven which occurred at the Swanage Folk Festival in 2010.
Hall of Fame (being a list of sides that, to our knowledge, perform Worcestershire Monkey)
Wicket Brood Border Morris (Hertfordshire)
Ælfgythe Border Morris (Worcestershire)
Anonymous (Dorset)
Baldock Midnight Morris (Hertfordshire)
Black Swan Border Morris (Surrey)
Borderline Border Morris (Berkshire)
Borderline Border Morris (Devon)
Clerical Error Border Morris (Wales)
Dartmoor Border Morris (Devon)
Enigma Border Morris (Somerset)
Exmoor Border Morris (Devon)
Fox Morris (Worcestershire)
Green Dragon Border Morris (Suffolk)
Loose Women Morris (Kent)
Lumbawakk (Oxfordshire)
OBJ Border Morris (Berkshire)
Otter Morris (Devon)
Pedant’s Revolt (Norfolk)
Powderkegs Border Morris (Derbyshire)
Ragged Crow, Formerly Nelson Morris Dancers
Ragged Phoenix (East Sussex)
Shinfield Shambles Border Morris (Berkshire)
Stone the Crows Border Morris (Lancashire)
Winterbourn Down Border Morris (Gloucestershire)
Wreckers Border Morris (Cornwall)
Wytchwood Morris (Worcestershire)
Young Miscellany (Hertfordshire)
Orange Peel Border Morris (Orangeville, Ontario, Canada)
Black Sheep Morris (Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada)
Quicksbottom Morris (Victoria, BC, Canada)
Nor’West Arch (Christchurch, New Zealand)
Dark Moon Morris (Nelson, New Zealand)
Happy Kelpie Morris (St Petersburg, Russia)
Drunken Weasels Border Morris (Virginia, USA)
The music Weasel’s Revenge (copyright Jan Hurst) used for other dances
Bikers Urban Morris with the dance Knutcracker
Dartington Morris Men
Copyright
Our dance Worcestershire Monkey was written by Martin Hallett for Wicket Brood Morris and is danced to Weasel’s Revenge (copyright Jan Hurst). Both dance and music are fast becoming part of the new Border Morris tradition so please feel free to download the dance notation and dots from the website to learn them. If you add the Worcestershire Monkey to your repertoire, we would love to hear from you so we can add you to our “Hall of Fame”. Please do not make any changes to the dance and please only use the correct titles which are Worcestershire Monkey and Weasel’s Revenge (copyright Jan Hurst). If you would like to record the dance to publish on YouTube, Soundcloud or any other website or app, please can you credit the dance Worcestershire Monkey by Martin Hallett of Wicket Brood and the music Weasel’s Revenge (copyright Jan Hurst) in your notes about the recording. If you are publishing a public recording of the tune Weasel’s Revenge, we would ask you kindly to let Jan know via email to Wicket Brood Bagman or Bandleader.
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