Teams I’ve Belonged To
I’ve belonged to or currently belong to the following Morris teams:
Swarthmore College Morris & Swords (Swarthmore, PA) [1979-1983]
The Swarthmore team is a typical collegiate mixed side. It has existed on
and off for at least the past three or four decades. ( Accounts and Photos can be found of Morris
at Swarthmore going back to 1967 and the 1970s when the kit included a
cross-baldrick.) It is currently making a come-back after several years
of decline. Traditions
in the 1980s included: Headington, Bledington,
Bampton, Adderbury. A Rapper-Sword team or a Long-Sword team has also existed
as an adjunct at various periods. The kit consisted (at that time in the
1980s, though undoubtedly, it has changed since) of whites with a garnet-red
(the College
color) vest with a unicorn badge on the
back. The practice
times and day vary from year to year, and the team performs at college
festivals and events
and on May Day and Parents’ Day.
[The team’s website: The Swarthmore College Folk Dance Club]
Oxford City Morris Men (Oxford, England) [1983-1985]
The Oxford City Morris Men is a founding member of the Morris Ring and has
existed since before 1934 (more than 75 years.) The team has been granted
use of the arms of the city of Oxford as a badge. The team dances a very
wide range of traditions including nearly every one in Bacon, as well as several others such as Abingdon (by historical licence). This broad
range was acquired over the side’s many years of dancing. The kit consists
of whites with a red and blue cross baldrick (red & blue are the colors of the City of Oxford), and red and blue ribbons on the
bell pads. a grey felt hat is also sometimes worn. The badge of the City
of Oxford is earned by dancing a solo jig in public and is worn on the
front of the cross-baldrick (until the badge is earned, a red rosette is
worn there). The team meets on Wednesday evenings to practice at a school
in the Jericho section of Oxford or to perform. The team hosts a Day of
Dance in mid October.
[The team’s website: Oxford City Morris Men / Contact: bagman@ocmm.org.uk]
Kingsessing Morris Men (Philadelphia, PA) [1985-1991; 1991- (visiting)]
Founded in 1977, Kingsessing Morris Men is Philadelphia’s men’s side. (Spruce
Hill used to be the corresponding women’s side). The name comes from an
Indian word for a swampy place and refers to the Philadelphia neighborhood
where the team first met. The team heirarchy includes both a Squire and
a Foreman as well as a Bagman and Musician. Traditons include: Bledington,
Fieldtown,
Ducklington, plus The Upton-upon-Severn Stick Dance and Aderbury Shooting.
The team now also does some Border Morris dances in a separate black rag
kit and blackface. The standard kit includes white pants (originally with
maroon and yellow striping down the
leg, but
this
striping has been
discontinued in
the current
kit),
and armbands of similar striping with rosettes in the same colors on the
armbands and on a set of maroon suspenders which sport a badge depicting
a maroon crown on a yellow field (an oblique reference the the ‘king’ in Kingsessing).
A grey felt hat, also with a band of the striping, is also sometimes worn.
The team meets to practice in Narberth, PA at the Merion Friends’ Meeting House on
Monday nights and dances out in the spring and fall on weekends. The team
hosts an ale, the Spring Tour, on the Mother’s Day weekend in mid May. The team
toured in England in 1987 for its 10th anniversary.
[The team’s website: Kingsessing Morris Men / Contact: kingsessing@verizon.net]
The Bouwerie Boys (New York, NY) [1991- ]
The Bouwerie Boys are one of New York City’s two men’s teams (Greenwich Morris Men (now disbanded) being the other, with Ring o’ Bells the corresponding women’s team and Half Moon a women’s sword team). The name is taken from a New York neighborhood near where the
team practices. The team’s principal tradition is Sherborne, but in 1985 after touring in England the
team added the Chipping Campden dances (by special dispensation) after visiting with that team. In
1993 Oddington was added. Both Upton-upon-Severn dances—Stick and Handkie—are done as well as one or two Bampton dances and one or two Ducklington dances.
The kit includes whites with an urban black vest sporting the aaahhh… red rose, and two sets of armbands, the upper of which has black, white, red
and light blue ribbons, the lower, ribbons of the individual’s choice. A black berret is sometimes worn. The team meets to practice on Monday
night, gathering at McSorleys Old Ale House near Cooper Square before going
to a practice space near Astor Place, and dances out in the spring and
summer in Manhattan and the New York suburbs. An event, the SUDS, is hosted
in North-West
Connecticut in mid-June. The team toured in England in 1985 and again in
1993.
[The team’s Facebook Page: Bouwerie Boys Morris Dancers / Contact: Squire, John Dexter: Dexvla@aol.com]
The American Travelling Morrice (ATM) [2007- ]
The American Travelling Morrice is an ad hoc team of exceptional dancers and musicians selected from a variety of other teams across the United States, Canada and Britain. They get together for a week each summer in July or August to form a single unified team touring throughout a region and performing a variety of village traditions. The ATM, founded in 1976 and loosely modelled on England’s Travelling Morrice (based in Cambridge), usually dances in New York State and New England, but toured in England for Tour XXXI in 2006. The ATM kit is simple but effective: whites with deep blue suspenders sporting a single red-deep blue-grey rosette on the left side, and a blue neckerchief and red, blue and grey ribbons on deep blue armbands.
[The team’s temporary website: The American Travelling Morrice / Contact: Mitch Diamond: mitch.diamond@comcast.net]
Thames Valley International (TVI) (London, ON et alibi) [2007- ]
Thames Valley International is based in London, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1981,
its members come from both sides of the American-Canadian border and across
the continent. The team specializes in its own distinctive form of the
Fieldtown tradition, which is now considered to have evolved into a tradition
in its own right—“Thames Valley.” Most of the dances now done are therefore of the team's own creation (several
have even been widely adopted by other teams that dance Fieldtown) though
a few traditional Fieldtown dances are retained. The kit features whites
(particularly, a pleated white tuxedo shirt) with blue suspenders and dark-blue/light-blue/dark-blue
rosettes and a navy blue neckercheif. White shoes are worn and a top hat
is sometimes seen (though less often in recent times.)
[The team’s website: Thames Valley Morris International (TVI) / Contact: Musician, Paul Handford: handford@uwo.ca]
Binghamton Morris Men (Binghamton, NY) [2010- ]
The Binghamton Morris Men are based in Binghamton, NY. Founded in 1973 by John Dexter (who also founded the Bouwerie Boys and the American Travelling Morrice),
its members come mostly from the Binghamton, Ithaca, Syracuse area in upstate New York, with a few now living elsewhere. It is one of the oldest teams still dancing in North America today. The team specializes in dances from Bampton and Chipping Campden (which it does with special permission from the Chipping Campden Men in England) and Ducklington. The kit features whites
with a white vest with red-navy blue-gold rosettes and ribbons and red armbands with red, navy blue and gold ribbons and a red neckerchief and red socks.
[The team’s website: The Binghamton Morris Men, and other reference websites: morrisdancing.wikia.com/… and Gilbertsville.com /
Contacts: Ken Kearns (Bagman for Life): kkearns92@hotmail.com or Peter Klosky: klosky@aol.com]
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James E. Moskin 205 E. 95th Street, 31K New York, NY 10128 (212)-289-1637 jmoskin@rcn.com
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