Schedule

At an in-person Ale, you would normally find several different activities happening in different places across camp. Everyone finds something that captures their interest.

At the Virtual Ale, you’ll find something similar: a number of different events happening at the same time. During the weekend, there will be 4 different “rooms,” each with scheduled activities. As a registered Ale attendee, you can enter any room and join in the activity of your choice.

Registration helped us to gauge interest for various activities, and the schedule is our attempt to represent that interest. All times posted are Central Daylight Time.

 

Friday May 22, 2020

  Mainstage Fireside Billiard Room The Pub
6 pm – 7 pm Welcome, Ale Briefing, Etiquette    

 
7 pm – 8 pm   Dinner Chat  

General

Chat

 

 

 
8 pm – 9 pm

May Jig Festival!    Review all 6 jigs

   Teen Game Room
9 pm – 10 pm Jig Workshop: Ladies’ Pleasure (Mpls on the Msspi)  Singing
10 pm – ??

Pick-up Dancing

 

Saturday May 23, 2020 

 

 

  Mainstage Fireside Billiard Room The Pub
7:30 am – 9 am Breakfast Chat    

 

General

Chat
       
10 am – 11 am Marlboro Morris Ale Mass Stand with show dances    
       

11:30 am –

12:30 pm

 Midwest Ale Mass Stand with show dances (Part One)    
       
1 pm – 2:30 pm SQL Tour Unix Tour Java Tour
       
3 pm – 4:30 pm Oracle Tour PHP Tour Python Tour
       
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm Midwest Ale Mass Stand with show dances (Part Two) Dinner Chat  
       
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Morris Dancer Dynamic Stretching Workshop

 Craft Beer Tasting Workshop

Teen Game Room
7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Solo Folk Dance Workshop  

A Game of Aunt Sally (Workshop)
8:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Contra Dance Music Concert: The Cosmic Otters!

Jig Workshop: Jabberwocky (Havering over Brunswick)

General

Chat

 
9:30 pm – ??

Singing

 Pick-up Dancing

 

 

Sunday May 24, 2020 

 

  Mainstage Fireside Billiard Room The Pub
7 am – 8:30 am Rebroadcast of Midwest Ale Mass Stand   Breakfast Chat General Chat
8:30 am – 9 am     Toddler Juice Box Happy Hour
9 am – 10 am

Morris History Workshop

 Knitting Workshop Harmonizing With Friends using the Acapella App Tune Exchange
         
10:30 am – 11:30 am

Jig Workshop: Off To California (Litchfield, 3-person)  

 Building up a Mummer’s Play for skit night Melodeon Kitchen: Spice Up Your Melodeon Technique  Scotch Tasting Workshop
         
12 pm – 1:30 pm Visual Basic Tour Fortran Tour HTML Tour

General

Chat
       
2 pm – 3:30 pm SAS Tour C++ Tour Ruby Tour
4 pm – 5:30 pm       Gin and Tonic Happy Hour
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm Dinner Chat    

General

Chat

 

 

 

 
       
7 pm – 9 pm

Skit Night

    
       
9:30 pm – ?? Pick-up Dancing Singing  

 

Monday May 25, 2020 

  Mainstage Fireside Billiard Room The Pub
9 am Monday Brunch    

General

Chat
11 am One Virtual Grecian Urn

Descriptions of Activities

 

Workshops

We have so much talent in our community! Many volunteers have stepped up to lead workshops throughout the weekend on a variety of topics. For an hour someone of irreputable talent will be sharing their knowledge with you. Please come learn something so you too can be an even more impressive individual than you already are. We encourage you to have your video on so that others can be inspired by your learning in these workshops.

Morris jig workshops

A very talented individual will be teaching you a jig. Be ready to dance. We encourage you to have your video turned on for this activity so others can be inspired by your dancing.

  • Ladies’ Pleasure – Minneapolis-On-The-Mississippi (Friday)
  • Jabberwocky – Havering-Over-Brunswick Brackleberry (Saturday)
    Example video on YouTube
    Dance notes PDF
  • Off to California – a 3-person jig – Litchfield, MTM-style (Sunday)

 

Music workshops

  • Harmonizing With Friends using the Acapella app. Can we sing together? Turns out there’s an app for that. Come ready to sing and bring your smartphone. You may want to install the Acapella app by Mixcord for the iPhone or iPad before the workshop.

  • Tune exchange. Bring a tune to share, or just come to play along. We can take turns leading tunes, with only the tune leader unmuted while we play. Feel free to ask questions via chat, or we can unmute ourselves between tunes.

  • Melodeon Kitchen: Spice Up Your Melodeon Playing! Want to explore all those little frilly parts that really make a tune shine? This advanced workshop will break down the guts-and-bolts of how and where to add embellishments to a Morris tune. Please bring at least one melodeon.

 

Tasting workshops

  • Craft Beer Tasting. This is a show-tell-share session – please bring a craft beer to taste and describe. Consider sharing a highlight from a small brewery in your area.

  • Scotch Tasting. This is a show-tell-share session – join your friends and take turns extolling the virtues of your favorite single-malt beverages. 

Poetic license when describing your tasting experience to your virtual companions is highly encouraged.

If you don’t already have craft beer or single-malt Scotch in your home, please don’t make a special trip (follow local guidelines for non-essential trips). It’s totally fine to showcase some weird spirit you already had in the back of your cabinet.

Participants in Tasting workshops must be of legal drinking age. 

 

Solo Folk Dance workshop
AKA Clogging for Folks Who Already Know How to Dance

You don’t need taps to learn how to clog–just a spot where you’ll dance and shoes that won’t scuff your floor. (Piece of plywood or a dance board optional). American (Appalachian) Clogging has evolved from a percussive style of square dance to a broader form that includes line dancing (without partners) and using clogging steps that have names and are largely shared throughout the clogging community. You will learn some about the history of Appalachian Clogging, while learning new steps and techniques. For comparison and conversation, we will also introduce the basics of several allied arts–buck dancing, flatfooting, and Canadian step dancing. Everyone will learn something — whether you are experienced or trying this for the first time.

Andy Howard earned his Master of Arts in American Dance Studies at Florida State University. (The history of American Team Clogging was the topic of this thesis.) He is an international clogging instructor/choreographer and the director of the American Racket Cloggers–a troupe that has toured throughout the U.S., as well as Canada, Brazil, Costa Rica, and South Korea. Andy has been clogging for more than 30 years and currently lives in Atlanta where he is a Public Relations officer for the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has taught tap and clogging at Florida State University, University of Florida, and Santa Fe College–and festivals and workshops around the globe.

 

Fun and Misc. Workshops

  • Dynamic Stretching for the Morris Dancer. Take care of your body! Transition from sitting to dancing by working through different muscle groups.

  • A Game of Aunt Sally. To be ready to play the game, you will need:
    • six sharpie pens (or equivalent)
    • one six ounce tomato paste can (or equivalent)
    • one large marshmallow (or equivalent)
    • enough clear space on your desk or dining table. 

  • Knitting. Bring your needles, a ball of yarn, and your enthusiasm. Cup of tea optional.

  • Building Up A Mummer’s Play for Skit Night. Didn’t get a slot on the Skit Night schedule but still hankering to perform? Are you the Dragon or the Doctor? The end product of this workshop will be showcased during Skit Night. Costumes encouraged. We will also show you how to make a traditional mummer’s headdress to wear on skit night. You will need poster board, news- or wrapping paper, scissors, and a stapler. If you are interested in taking this workshop, click here to request Google Drive access to a copy of the mummers rhymes!

  • Morris History Presentation – A Vignette In 3 Parts:

Participate

Pick-up Dancing

Remember all those jigs you’ve learned? This is the time to dance them. And whatever else you want to dance. Joy of Zoom, anyone?

Singing

Singing is an important part of our community. Singing virtually together is difficult, but that won’t stop us. The session leader will help organize who is leading a song next. The song leader will be the only person un-muted. Sing along at home.

Toddler Juice Box Happy Hour

For the youngest members of our Morris community — bring your own juice box or sippy cup. Say hi to other kids, and show and tell about your favorite toy. 

Gin and tonic Happy Hour

Join the garden party and show off that you’re wearing white pants on the Eve before Memorial Day. Not a workshop, so no notebooks or quizzes. Parasols and garden attire suggested. BYO Gin.

Monday Brunch

Good morning! No need to rush around your cabin, packing and preparing for a long road trip. This is a Virtual Ale, with no travel crunch and lost socks, so let’s do brunch in style!

Bring a favorite food of your choice: Rice Chex? Waffles and champagne? Bagels and cream cheese — with capers? Pour yourself some coffee that tastes better than camp coffee, and let’s spend a relaxed morning with our community. Pajamas and goofy hats are strongly encouraged.

We will come together for One Grecian Urn, a classic Midwest Morris tradition, at 11 am Central Daylight Time.

 

Touring

 

Virtual Tours

A small group of teams will be piled into a zoom room together. Think of this like a pub stop. Grab yourself a drink, and enjoy each other’s company. Our Trusty Virtual Guides (aka Zoom room moderators) will introduce teams to each other and help guide us through maybe a jig and a song. The conversation is up to you. We highly recommend the use of the chat feature, and possibly break out rooms for more personal conversations.

 

 

Spectate

 

Live Stream Mass Stand

This is the time for your team to show off. Remember that video of your team performing that you sent in? This is where we all get to watch it and be impressed by your dancing. This will be a live stream video.

To watch the LIVE feed of the Midwest Morris Ale Mass Stand on Saturday, May 23, 11:30 AM CDT (pt 1) and 5:00 CDT (pt 2) please visit the Midwest Morris Ale YouTube channel.

While you’re there, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. After we reach 100 subscribers we can have the channel renamed from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8cYhBrBj9T46tpwAg4GaVA to something more easy to remember and pronounce.
We did it! New name is https://www.youtube.com/c/midwestmorrisale

Mass Stand Part 1: https://youtu.be/fDx5-VQUu18

Mass Stand Part 2: https://youtu.be/fbVHTp_1cpU

Marlboro Morris Ale Mass Stand: https://youtu.be/bn_YH21__U0

Contra Dance Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ1ftdd35tw

The Cosmic Otters, one of our long-time favorite Midwestern contra dance bands, will be piping some fabulous music into your home. Use this music to put into practice some of those solo moves you’ve been working on. Join us for some lively tunes and medleys.

Skit Night

This is where you can really shine! Skit Night will be a combination of live stream and submitted material FROM YOU! Let’s entertain each other like only Morris Dancers can. The MC or MCs will guide the show.

These creators of these skits have consented to make their video available:

Nocturne, Ruth Letson and Amy Letson

A Toast to Man, Lara Friedman-Shedlov

Tonya Harding, Robin Rayfield

Oak Apple Day, Gary Schulte

In Comes I: 30 Years of Mumming, Susan Galbraith

Hail, Hail, the first of May, David Wells

Wake Robin and the Case of the Missing Hankies, Wake Robin Morris

Off to California, Minnesota Traditional Morris

Games

Teen Game Room

Cards Against Humanity and other games. Organized and led by teens of the Midwest Morris Ale, this is a virtual game room. We highly encourage our youth to come together and play.

 

Chats

Meal Chats

We’ve all got to eat sometime. Let’s eat together! Come join us at the cool kids’ table, bring your meal and let’s talk.

General Chat

Just need someone to talk to, but aren’t sure where to go? Head over to our open general chat room. This is for all those off-topic conversations you might have while passing a stranger on the way to the bathroom. If you and your pals would like a place to hang together for a bit, this is the room for you.

 

Info

Welcome and Ale Briefing

The Ale team or face of the Ale team will say welcome words to all participants. Perhaps we’ll sing a song on mute. All the important information you need for the weekend will be summarized in this meeting. We STRONGLY recommend you come. Because this Ale is so different, we want to cover technical and non-technical expectations and guidelines so we all have the best experience possible.

Feedback

The VirtuAle committee is dying to know how this weekend went. We have an open comment period just for you to tell us the positive and negative of the weekend. (Yes, we are already expecting technical difficulties.) Now that we’ve seen what can be done virtually, how does this change what MWMA does moving forward?

Farewell

In how many different languages can you say “goodbye” and “see you in person next year”? The Ale committee will have some parting words of wisdom for you. Perhaps a farewell dance or song may occur. We love you. Stay safe and healthy. Stop spreading germs so we can do this in person with a real Bouncy Castle next year.