Just got back from the big Morris dance out. Our kids did GREAT!!! I’m just so proud of them! You’d have never guessed they’ve only been dancing since October…some of them even got to dance South Australia with the adults. I’ll post a picture later, when I have time to download them from my camera (I’ve got to head out again in just a little over an hour now).
I don’t think I did too badly. There were a few squawks, because I was nervous and not as accustomed to my Susato as I am to some of my other whistles, but I kept the rhythm keen, and I doubt many people noticed the other. I ran into one other whistler, playing a (I believe) Kerry Pro Low D and a Susato Kildare. There was also a lady playing what appeared to be a keyless piccolo (it was too tiny to be a fife, but it was blown transversely like a fife or piccolo) and a couple of concertinas (but no r****ders! ).
I’m just so stoked! We even had a couple of people approach us about gigs!
My new avatar is our logo “Morris” (we’re Seahorse Morris, so he’s either “Morris the Sea Horris” or “Morse the Seahorse” depending on who you’re talking to).
You know what was especially neat? The adults were so friendly and welcoming to the kids. There were three adult teams there…Santa Cruz’s own Seabright, a team from Hayward called Faultline and another team called White Rat (who, for some reason, dressed all in black). Nobody talked down to the kids (in fact, nobody referred to them as “the kids”…they were “Seahorse”), they allowed the kids to join adult sets for the dances they knew without question, and they were very liberal with the praise and positive input. That’s really cool, to my way of thinking…so often children doing “adult” activities are either just cooed over as “cute” or dismissed as a necessary annoyance…these adults simply accepted Seahorse as fellow Morris Dancers.
OK, I messed up the first attempt at posting pictures, so let me try again (and I’ll remember to preview this time!)
Here’s Team Seahorse, minus a few members who hadn’t arrived yet:
Here’s my daughter, dancing with a friend from Seabright:
This is me, helping the kids get kitted up:
Here’s Seahorse dancing “South Australia.” I didn’t play for this one because it was a mass dance, and I don’t know it (yet!) in the same key as the other musicians:
And finally, here’s my daughter and friend fascinated by Seabright’s “Hobby Fish”:
It sure does look like fun (it’s definitely fun to watch, and to play for!). I’d love to join Seabright, but they practice on the same night (and at the same time) as my choir. I keep hoping one or the other will move practice times, but that doesn’t look likely.
The kids really love it…I see them practicing on the playground at recess sometimes.
You can occasionally see morris dancers in England, lounging around outside a pub on a sunny afternoon, and very occasionally actually dancing, but such events are usually insmall villages where such traditions are upheld.
It’s great to see some morris dancers are keeping up the tradition in America too!
On the whole May Day/May Pole thing, last year I watched a school group doing a series of maypole dances in Alfriston, Sussex, on the village green. The teacher was very patient when tangles occurred, the children (mostly girls) very young and keen. The music was provided by a piano accordian player.
My mother was headmistress of a small private school for 18 years, and used to arrange a maypole dance each year, with children of all nationalities involved. They loved it!
We’re thinking about trying to arrange a maypole for next year … I think the kids would really get a kick out of that.
It’s kind of funny, but this whole idea kind of grew out of a rather unpleasant event at this time last year. Seabright Morris has danced on the Mall on May Day for years without any problem at all, but last year a couple of new office tenants called the police to complain about the noise and they were told to disperse (I felt rather sorry for the police at the time…THEY knew that Seabright always danced downtown on May Day, and that there’d never been a problem with it, but because there had been a complaint and the group didn’t have a parade permit, they had no choice but to ask them to leave). Anyway, one of the dancers is a parent at our school (and also one of our drama teachers) and she grabbed the disappointed dancers, said “come on…let’s go dance at the school” and they delighted all the children with a totally unexpected May Day treat. Much to her surprise, several of the kids approached her in the weeks that followed, asking if she could teach THEM to do that “funny dance with all the bells.” Whether or not it could happen pretty much depended on finding parents who could serve as musicians (there being no money in the budget to hire anyone), and I volunteered. We were delighted to have 12 kids show up for the first practice, most of whom are still dancing with us and looking forward to next year. There’s been interest in the greater community as well, and we plan to open it up to kids who aren’t affiliated with the school next year (we had one dancer this year who is home schooled, but he got involved because his parents are also Seabright dancers). The funny thing is, until yesterday, we got NO respect from the school office…they even gave away our practice space a month ago without bothering to consult with us, so now we have to share it with a judo class (that makes for an interesting situation!). I think a few minds were changed yesterday…they were REALLY impressed, both with what the kids have managed to accomplish and with the obvious appeal of Morris Dancing (they were really surprised when three adult troupes showed up…I think they honestly thought this was just something a few oddballs in Santa Cruz did!). We hope that Seahorse will ultimately become a “feeder” troupe for Seabright, keeping the tradition alive here for another generation.
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Congrats to all!
