I want to tell you about this project, what we're trying to do, and why.

I have said before that we are in danger of 'losing our heritage', and people have put various interpretations on that particular phrase.

We're trying to gather up a picture of dance at this particular point in time, record as much of the music as we can, and promote the dance form.

It is true that nearly all the history is already preserved by various individuals and organizations, and that won't disappear, but the reality is that we lost Garstang Morris a couple of years ago, and now I hear that Wheatley have stopped dancing recently, and we have no recordings of music the way they played it, therefore even now history is getting lost. History has been preserved, but it's not being preserved. It's being made all the time but people only seem to think about preserving what has happened rather than what is happening now.

Paper records of tunes are fine except that, as you all know only too well, every side have their own unique rendition of a tune which they've developed to suit their dance so, while we might have a recording played by someone else sometimes it's hardly even recognizable as the same tune. While people are worrying about securing old history, real sides out here are disappearing leaving no trace of their music. Don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with preserving old history, it's valuable, those who undertake it are doing a magnificent job, and someone has to do it otherwise it won't get done. By the same token, someone has to preserve what we have now and promote it, otherwise that won't get done either.

I have had many long discussions with people on the subject of what constitutes English folk dance. Some forms seem to be much derided, and I have been laughed at on occasions for expressing the opinion that we had to include the so-called 'fluffy morris' in the project at some point. Of course it has to go in, simply because it's a dance form that exists today, and if we leave it out then we're making judgemental decisions about what ought to be part of history and what ought to be left behind. In fifty years time people will want to know how we got from here to there, and there wouldn't be any proper record of it if we deal with today's events selectively.

Promotion is also the goal as well. When I explained to our press officer (who is still learning about morris) of our plans to give this project its first public airing at the Lamb Ale he was sceptical, because he thought there might be too much competition from other organizations that promoted morris dance. He went very quiet when I told him that they wouldn't be there because there weren't any. To this day he is still astounded that one of the biggest Cotswold morris events came and went, and no-one was there to 'wave the flag' for morris dance.

The aim of the project is to 'snapshot' what is happening now, but also to take it out to people and raise their awareness of it. If we don't do that then we'll be in the same position we were after the war when the sides ran out of young dancers.

Everyone says that it's the young people who will carry this forward, and opinions differ about whether there are sufficient newcomers to keep things going. Some sides have plenty, others have few. No matter how many new people join morris sides this is unlikely to raise the image of the dance form. For that to happen it needs to be promoted actively to people who do not already know about it and like it.

Let's face it, morris will never be 'hip', but it might just get away with being 'cool'. One thing is for sure, it'll never be either of those things whilst it is perceived as being something that silly old men do because their brains have fallen out or, worse still, as a bunch of twisted weirdos poncing about in dresses. This is really what I mean by 'losing the heritage', it's not to do with forgetting the past, it's to do with neglecting the present. Our local TV couldn't even be persuaded to come and cover the Lamb Ale, probably because there was a chance that a lorry might shed a load of fish, and they would miss a good story.

Although morris history and folklore seem to have been done to death, the point of having them in the project is because we have to capture the interest and imagination of a whole new set of people who know little or nothing about morris. It's all out there already somewhere, but the trouble is that it's all in books and you have to be 'into' morris to even begin to know where to find it all out. In other words it's basically inaccessible to anyone who has only a casual interest in it - that won't do - people won't get interested in morris if there isn't something informative and entertaining which they can find and read in ten minutes, without having to trawl through libraries or buy a pile of books.

We have to do this, and not be afraid to laugh at ourselves. After all, morris dance is supposed to be fun. I admit that we're not there yet, and we might take some wrong turns along the way, but we'll get there, and somehow I don't think the work will ever be finished.

The feedback I've had so far has been positive, and useful. Keep writing to us and speaking to us, we appreciate your support very much.