What we do

 

Ofstep is the new Office for Standards in Morris Dancing. We report directly to the Joint Morris Organisations and we are independent and impartial. We inspect and regulate dance sides that perform the Morris in any of its accepted forms, namely Cotswold, Border, Molly, North West, Longsword and Rapper.

 

Every week, we will carry out hundreds of inspections and regulatory visits throughout England, and publish the results on our website. To find an inspection report, go to the find an inspection report page.  We work with dance sides that are not yet good to promote their improvement, monitoring their progress and sharing with them the best practice we find.

 

Ofstep is committed to raising the standards of Morris dancing. Whilst most sides are continually self–evaluating their performances, tweeking this and adjusting that, too many sides are only too happy to dance “common denominator” morris.

 

Ofstep has selected a team of uniquely qualified inspectors to drive the agenda for change. This team will spend the summer watching, scrutinising, bitching and generally gobbing off about the performances they are tasked with inspecting. To avoid undue pressure on dancers faced with un-announced inspections, the inspectors will be dressed as dancers or musicians, seamlessly blending in with the performers. In fact, it will be virtually impossible to distinguish the inspectors by their behaviour, such is the level of scrutinising, bitching and generally gobbing off that occurs anyway.

 

The results of the observations will be tabulated, collated, annotated, zipped and left on a bus before the sides in the lowest quartile of the Study will be invited (coerced) to join our recovery programme - Out Ofstep

 

Testing of the quality principles with dance organisations is underway. Amongst others we are working with The Joint Morris Organisations, EFDSS, Strictly Come Morris, and the Union of Galleying Young People (UGYP).  We owe a huge debt of gratitude to The Association of Posture, Rhythm, Inspiration and Leotards (APRIL): the first organisation to devise an evaluation approach which includes skills development for senior practitioners.