A Morris Dancing procession will take place throughout Stockport town centre this Saturday. 

From 10.30am on 18 May, The Adlington Morris Men will set off on a parade from Viaduct Park, through Merseyway and onto Market Place. 

From 11am, the dancers will make proceed from Market Place onto another tour of the town centre, this time taking in the Baker's Vaults, Little Underbank, The Spinn Off, Bridgefield Street, and The Swan with Two Necks. 

Rounding the day off will be a final dance at 3.30pm at the Merseyway. 

The Adlington Morris Men is a Morris 'side' based in Bramhall. The side was founded in 1964, and so this performance will be a 60th anniversary celebration.  

Morris Dancing dates back to the 15th century, and is believed to have originated as a courtly pursuit. 

In the ensuing centuries it transitioned to become more of a rural phenomenon, although how that shift took place is unclear. 

Since then, a vast array of different styles have emerged. Some trace a lineage of tradition down to the very earliest styles of dance, whilst others emerged more recently; the North West Morris style, for instance, originated in the mills of the 19th century.

The Adlington dancers who will perform on Saturday will dance in the Cotswold Morris style. 

It is described by the English Folk Dance society as "an energetic, buoyant and athletic form of dance".

(Morris dancers in Manchester image by Gerald England, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0. Note that the dancers in this image are not the Adlington Morris Men, but another Morris side performing in Manchester.)

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