Morris Troupe Brings English Folk Dancing to Berkshires
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Red Shirt Farm got a visit on Tuesday from Morris folk dancers who delighted guests with a dances and music.
The American Traveling Morrice troupe is touring throughout the Berkshires and surrounding areas this week. They started the morning in Lanesborough on Tuesday and then traveled to North Adams, Adams and Cheshire before turning south toward Connecticut.
People of all ages gathered outside the farm store to watch the dancing, which included bells, drums, and an accordion.
Morris dancing is a centuries-old English folk dance tradition involving groups of usually men who dance complex figures in costumes and with accessories. The troupe is comprised of about 15 dancers and musicians who from across the nation and from Canada and England. This particular troupe has been performing around the Northeast for almost 50 years.
"It has changed over the years, of course, because like all folk traditions, peasants in their villages decide to do things differently," said dancer Alan Peel. "So, there are different villages in England, especially in the Cotswold region near Oxfordshire, where many, many different villages have their own morris traditions, and we danced a few of those different kinds of traditions here today."
The group usually performs outside where the community can gather and enjoy their dances.
"The joy of it is it's outdoors. It's for the people. It's not usually staged. It is truly a folk dance," Peel said.
The group meets up for the dancing but is also a great group of friends who are spending the week camping.
"What you don't see is that we're also just really good friends that hang out. So we're camping for a week in Hillsdale, N.Y., this year, and when we get back all sweaty and tired, we jump in the river and you know wash off and then sit around and sing songs," he said. "We're a big singing group. A lot of Morris teams are good folk songs with choruses that everyone can join in on."
They hope to bring joy and the arts to others by showcasing that anyone can come and dance along.
"We do claim on our website and in our brochure that we bring good luck and fertility. What that means to you is your own interpretation," said Peel. "But we hope to bring joy. We hope to bring this the concept of you don't you don't have to just be a professional artist. That there is art that everyone should do, like if they possibly can, whether it's dancing or singing or painting or making music, everyone should do that. And some say we embody that. I mean, and we try to perfect it."
The group usually picks farm stands and other local spots for their dances and liked Red Shirt Farm. Peel said members were impressed by how they farm is run. They planned to stop at other farmstands as well.
"That's in keeping with the agrarian part of Morris dancing from England, which is the Cotswolds, is a beautiful rolling hills of little farms. It's just picturesque England, not London," he said. "But we also love to go to old folks' homes and bring a little joy there. And we sometimes go to schools. But other than those sort of. All-purpose community outreach, fun things."
The group also made a stop at the Mount Greylock Visitors Center, the town common in Adams, and Windsor Lake and Freight Yard Pub in North Adams, and other Berkshire County locations. They'll be back in the Berkshires on Saturday to perform at the Lee Farmers Market and Library in the morning, in Lenox in the afternoon and the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge at 5 p.m. You can view the full schedule here.
Red Shirt Farm owner Jim Schultz said it was really cool to see them keep a 500-year tradition alive.
"It's just so crazy and out of the ordinary, and such a throwback to traditional times and things, and just the history involved, and the fact that their collective is from all over the place, Canada and England and all of the United States, but they come together and give up a week to go around and to just to kind of keep the tradition alive," he said.
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