A troupe of Morris dancers who ditched traditional black face paint amid a racism row have performed for crowds painted GREEN for the first time in 500 years. <br /><br />Silurian Border Morrismen voted to scrap the tradition which dates back five centuries in case it upset anyone in wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. <br /><br />And today (Mon) the group performed their English folk dance routine to crowds of onlookers in Ledbury, Herefordshire, with their faces painted dark green. <br /><br />The side said they took the decision to ditch black face for their Boxing Day Tour after watching the rise of the BLM movement during lockdown.<br /><br />It is believed black soot was historically worn by the English folk dancers as a disguise so they could beg for money without getting in trouble with the law.<br /><br />But there has been a growing controversy that the practice is 'black face' and a belief the word Morris derives from the word Moorish.<br /><br />Morris dancer Chris Mulvey, 71, admitted the majority of the group would like to have continued with the black disguise - but felt it was the right time to change.<br /><br />Chris, who has been member since 1978, said: "We are on our Boxing Day tour and this is the first time we have our green face disguise.<br /><br />"There have been about 15 of us out performing this morning and we have had hundreds come and watch us dance so far.<br /><br />"We've had no direct comments from anyone, we were not anticipating any antagonism from the public at all - and that has been proved.<br /><br />"They just want to see people having a laugh and making fun of themselves.<br /><br />"We're not in the business of wanting to upset people, we've made the change to a greenish tinge.<br /><br />"We're not taking the mick out of anyone. If anybody is offended we do not want to add to that.<br /><br />Video was filmed on the 27th Dec 2021.
