My friend, Barbara, who was once part of a Morris dancing group, and whose son is carrying on the tradition in Toronto, posted a comment to my post the other day. I wanted to make sure people saw it:
Ah. No. Maple Morris is the name of one of the teams that danced that day, a team started by two Canadians (hence the name). Other teams dancing that day were the Rock Creek Morris Women and Foggy Bottom Morris Men (both from DC and named after DC locations), the Albermarle Morris Men (from Charlottesville in Albermarle County), Handsome Molly (from NJ), and the Toronto Morris Men (from, er, Toronto). So team names often reflect their home town. Our local team, now disbanded, was called BaltiMorris.
Morris dancing is just called morris dancing. Glad you enjoyed it, though!
The Elizabeth Butt's article is sadly out-of-date, and was even in 1999. The pre-Christian fertility theory was put about in the early 20th c by a folklorist who had spent too much time reading _The Golden Bough_. In fact, most people today are pretty sure that it started as just another busking activity, a way for villagers to persuade wealthy people at the church fete or May fair to give them some coins. (see books by Tony Barrand, John Forrest, Ronald Hutton, Georgina Boyes for more info)
And, related to your course of study, there is a short scene of morris dancing in the film Bride and Prejudice.
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