It’s a longshot, I know, but if you happen to be in or near Santa Cruz on May Day, you’ll want to be on the Pacific Garden Mall, outside Bookshop Santa Cruz, at about 10:00 a.m., when Seahorse Morris makes its official debut! We’ve got about 10 kids between the ages of seven and 12 who have been practicing hard since October…they’ll be switching off dancing “South Australia” and “Shepherd’s Hey” so everyone gets a chance to perform. And yes, I’ll be there with my Susato Dublin 
(in that crowd of Rennaissance types, I’ll be easy to spot with that plastic whistle!). There will be three adult troupes dancing as well, including Santa Cruz’s own Seabright Morris, so it should be a lot of fun.
Seabright and the other adult troupes will also be dancing at the Santa Cruz Lighthouse at sunup on that day (we didn’t figure we’d be able to get all the kids up and moving in time for that), and after the performance on the Mall, Seabright and Seahorse will be heading back to our school to give a private performance for the students and teachers.
I’m really excited about this! Our Morris kids have been kind of a “poor stepchild” on the roster of after-school programs at the school (in fact, the school secretary continually “forgets” to list us among the after-school programs! She even gave away our practice space to a judo class, which has caused us to really scramble these past couple of weeks), so I’m glad they’re getting a chance to show off what they’ve been learning these many months. Our hope is that the program will continue, with these kids forming a “core” to help teach new kids (and, hopefully, as they grow older, some of them going on to join the adult Seabright troupe). This is a bit of living history that’s also a lot of fun (not to mention good exercise!) and it’s really neat to see kids turning on to it.
Redwolf