How to dance the DDMM way--Introduction
Welcome to the section of the DDMM website which goes into detail on the dances we do.
This page introduces the resources that DDMM have accumulated over the years to describe how their dances work. Just click on a link below and it will take you to a page or pages which contain all / anything we've written over the years about that tradition, and how DDMM dance it. If a tradition isn't mentioned, we don't do it, though we've included traditions / dances we used to do but which are not in the repertoire at the moment.
As well as 'set 'dances Devil's Dyke men have over the years learned a number of jigs - dances for one or two men. These are described on the page for the relevant tradition. Here's a link to our general page on jigs, which includes a list of the ones we do.
The Traditions
| Adderbury | Brackley | Hinton | Upton |
| Ascott | Ducklington | Ilmington | Weobley |
| Badby | Eynsham | Lichfield | |
| Bampton | Fieldtown | Longborough | |
| Bledington | Headington | Sherborne | |
A warning
About variation between morris sides
For many morris traditions there are a variety of accepted approaches to the whole tradition or /and to individual dances. Even when two sides are dancing a dance acording to the same 'recipe' they may well have evolved their own idiosyncrasies and even complete innovations. DDMM style is thus a case of doing it 'our way', which is what hopefully these notes explain.
About videos of morris dance
Of course, it's often easier to learn by seeing than by reading (but of course 'doing' is the vital part of all this), and where available we have included links to videos. Almost all are of DDMM themselves, and while there are plenty of other morris dance videos to look at, do be aware that another side almost certainly doesn't do the dance exactly the same way we do. In some cases the dance is unrecognisably different! Even our own videos do not always feature men doing things the proper DDMM way - we all have to keep on learning!
Here's a link to a videos page which includes all the known videos featuring DDMM, in no particular order and sometimes varying considerably in quality.
About music
Using the web to find music for a dance is a little bit more reliable, but not entirely so. Some musicians introduce their own variations, some dances are done to a range of different tunes, some musicians play too fast, some too slow, and not all musicians play well for morris dance, which requires the music to 'follow' the dancers, and where possible, to impel them into dancing well.