Top right, founding MossBack Morris Men member, Bob Greco plays the melodeon in front of West Seattle Wine Cellars as the group performs 400 year-old traditional English dances during the Thursday night Art Walk. They are pictured, bottom, doing handkerchief dances.
The MossyBack Morris Men, a Folklife Festival favorite, converged on the sidewalk in front of the West Seattle Wine Cellars, 6026 California Ave. SW, and favored customers and passersby with traditional English dance routines during the Thursday night Art Walk.
To the untrained eye, nothing seemed routine about them, as they performed the ancient Morris Dance from the Cotswold area of England. Most are handkerchief dances, while some utilize long wooden sticks the dancers cut from vine maple trees that grow in this area. Most dances are "six up" where six men stand side by side.
While the MossyBack troupe are all-male, Seattle also offers the Misty City Morris, a women's Cotswold-style Morris group, the North By Northwest Morris group, also female, and the male & female group, Sound & Fury Morris and Sword.
West Seattle Wine Cellars' co-owner Jan Martindale, pictured in top photo, left, stood at her shop's doorway to watch the MossyBacks, which include her husband Ian, and their son Geoffrey.
After performing, the MossyBacks walked down the street to the Beveridge Place Pub, an authentic English style bar.
