We ROCKED!!! :) (now with pictures...I hope!)

[Martin Milner]

Excellent!

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!

[Redwolf]

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.

Redwolf

[dakotamouse]

I've never heard of Morris dancing before . I did a quick internet search and learned a lot. Looks like good fun.