Join us for a Virtual Morris Workshop Weekend event! Like the 2020 Virtual Midwest Morris Ale, this event will take place over Zoom. The Workshop Weekend is FREE.
Registration is closed (Thursday October 8th). If you have questions about registration, please email registrar@midwestmorrisale.org
See you at the Workshop Weekend!
Schedule
Friday October 9, 2020
Central Daylight Time
| 8 pm — ?? |
Friday Pub – Welcome and Social Hour What have you been up to this summer? Join the Zoom call, say hello, catch up with friends from other teams after a long season. Special activities and guests TBA. |
Saturday October 10, 2020
Central Daylight Time
🔴 indicates that this Zoom session will be recorded
| 10 am – 11 am |
How to Sing Loud: Setting the Tone & Beat (Sustainably!) for Molly Dancing Corey O’Sullivan-Bauser Singing / Performance Workshop |
| 11:30 – 12:30 |
History of Morris Dancing in Chicago 🔴 Andrew Bullen Lunch and Learn |
| 1 pm – 2 pm |
Styling of Drowsy Maggie Eleanor Sampson Border Morris Workshop |
| 2 pm – 3 pm |
Gin and tonic Happy Hour — with the Muldoons! A late-breaking addition to the schedule…. squeaking in between workshops |
| 3 pm – 4 pm |
Adderbury Jig: Lumps of Plum Pudding Rowan Sauer, Maroon Bells Morris Cotswold Morris Workshop |
| 5 pm – 6 pm |
Inclusivity in Morris Dancing 🔴 Panel Discussion on inclusivity in the Morris dance community |
| 6 pm – ?? |
The Pub – social gathering on Zoom |
| 8 pm – ?? |
Pickup Dancing (separate Zoom call, overlaps with The Pub) |
Event Descriptions
How to Sing Loud: Setting the Tone & Beat, Sustainably, for Molly
In this workshop you will be exploring techniques and philosophies for impactful accompaniment to Molly dancing, without blowing out your voice, in both practice and performance.
Lunch and Learn: History of Morris Dancing in Chicago
Andrew Bullen will explore the century-old history of Morris in Chicago. An outgrowth of the late 19th century Settlement Movement, Chicago has had various Morris teams since 1906. Teams in Chicago have been mostly affiliated with the University of Chicago; Cecil Sharp used photographs of the University of Chicago long sword dancers to illustrate his “The Sword Dances of Northern England”. Bullen will trace the history of Morris in Chicago from its origins at the University to Chicago’s newest team, Pullman Morris and Sword.
Border Morris Workshop: Drowsy Maggie
In this short class we will put a microscope to a single verse of a Border dance called Drowsy Maggie, also known as Ockington. Great Northern Border calls this verse “Baseball,” and for good reason! We will look at GNB’s styling briefly, but mostly focus on how to execute a potentially unsafe and chaotic move safely and with performative panache, using principles from theatrical combat. These principles can then be extrapolated to many other aspects of Morris stick dances. This class will involve some shallow squatting and jumping, but should be accessible to anyone regardless of participation in those particular movements.
Bring your own stick.
Cotswold Workshop: Adderbury Jig Lumps of Plum Pudding
Lumps of Plum Pudding is a short jig and Maroon Bells original, purportedly in the Adderbury tradition that works well as a single or double jig.
Inclusivity in Morris Dancing
The Midwest Morris Ale has released a new statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. An illustrious panel of persons from the Morris Community have been gathered to discuss what this statement means for our community. The Panel will focus on how to consider inclusivity in the Morris Community.
The Pub
Meet some of your friends in the Pub to hang out, chat, sing, tell jokes, socialize, etc. Who knows what will happen in The Pub! A Trusty Virtual Guide (or two) will be there to help keep things rolling.
Pickup Dancing
Grab your hanks and brush up on your favorite Morris dancing with a couple hours of pickup dancing. Be prepared with requests and space to dance. Musicians, bring your instruments, this can’t happen without you.
Temple Blackwood will help to coordinate dances. Amy Letson will help to coordinate music.
Instructor Bios
Corey O’Sullivan-Bauser
Corey has been dancing with Ann Arbor Morris for 25 years, and is a founding member of The Quality Molly.
Andrew Bullen
Andrew Bullen has been a Morris dancer since 1980 and a member of several Chicago-based teams. He is a founding member of Pullman Morris and Sword, a team which just celebrated its 15th anniversary. He has been an editor of the American Morris Newsletter and has digitized all of the back issues of the periodical so that can be referenced online. He has also participated in the recent web redesign of the Midwest Morris Ale website. He is a librarian by profession and works on digital humanities projects for the Illinois State Library.
Eleanor Sampson
Eleanor (also known as El, or Nell) has been doing Morris since she was a toddler. She joined her first official team, the Northern Lights, when she was five, then joined an all-girls teenage team at 11, and formed her own (then) teen Cotswold team at age 13, now known as Brackleberry. She joined Great Northern Border when it opened to all genders around 2010, and is now one of the co-teachers of that team along with her father Temple (of MTM) and several others. Several years ago she also joined the Scottish-influenced rapper side, Duck or Grouse. Besides Morris and several other forms of folk and social dancing, Eleanor also spends her time practicing, teaching, and choreographing stage combat, and works as a massage therapist by day.
Rowan Sauer and Rodney Sauer
Rowan Sauer is the squire of Maroon Bells Morris in Colorado, and has been dancing Morris off and on since before his birth. He is a frequent collaborator with his father when it comes to modifying and inventing new Morris dances, such as the jig taught in this session.
Musician Bio: Rodney Sauer has been playing Morris accordion since joining Maroon Bells in the late 1980s. His contributions to the team extend beyond the musical and into many of the modifications to existing dances, and creation of skit dances for which Maroon Bells has gained some small notoriety.
Panel Discussion
PANELIST: Chris Bracken (she/her)
Chris is currently the squire of Rock Creek Morris Women in Washington, DC. She is very involved in developing tools for creating and maintaining diverse and inclusive culture at Youth Traditional Song Weekend.
PANELIST: Tango Lothrop (he/him)
Born and raised into a social justice lifestyle, Tango has experience with a number of projects promoting equity and inclusivity in the Twin Cities. He is currently the Squire and musician for Brackleberry Morris.
PANELIST: Bob Walser (he/him)
With a long history on more than a few Morris teams, Bob harbors a deep love for Morris culture and the spirit of community and human connection. He is currently a dancer and musician with Ramsey’s Braggarts in the Twin Cities. Bob is also involved with community farming projects and the Minneapolis Board of Education.
MODERATOR: Katie Leach (she/her)
Katie is the Squire of River Rats Border Morris. In her professional life, she is a school teacher in a predominantly minority community, and she is engaged in activism for diversity.
As President of the Midwest Morris Ale, Katie worked with the Board of Directors to create the MWMA’s statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.