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Wake Robin Morris

The History of Wake Robin,
as remembered at the pub

In the Beginning

Wake Robin Morris started practicing in the Fall of 1981 and got serious about dancing out in February of 1982. We practiced on Tuesday nights at the Bangs Community Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. After practice we would pub at the Drake with the men from Juggler Meadow.

We danced out for the first time on Saturday, May 1st 1982 at the annual Cushman Festival in Amherst, Massachusetts.

The original members consisted of Karen Blom, Marilyn Zeller, Sara Purdy, Sue Sternberg, Mary DeFelice, Jeanne Weintraub, Debbie Saperstone, Rhonda Tarr, Eleanor Abrams, and Laurie Z. Dale Gardner-Fox and Andy Tarr (that's me, in the third person - no relation to Rhonda) joined them at the first practice after the first dance out.

Sara Purdy was our Squire, Sue Sternberg our foreman and musician, and Marilyn Zeller our Bag.

None of the women had ever been on a Morris team before. We learned to dance by asking various people to come teach and then practicing what we could remember.

The dancers who so generously gave us their time for the first few seasons were Cammy Kaynor, Roger Cartwright and Cherie Bushey, and Jeff Tucker.

We danced Fieldtown as our only tradition. The Fieldtown that we danced was particularly our own because of the way we learned. Every tradition is danced a little differently by different people. Since we had a variety of teachers we had the challenge (opportunity?) to coalesce what we'd been taught into a cohesive whole.

Our dance repertoire consisted of Banks of the Dee, Signposts (er, Shepherd's Hey), and the Headington jig Shepherd's Hey done in Fieldtown style with all the dancers in a circle. Oh, yes, I almost forgot, and also that most splendid of dances, The Forester. We've managed to forget that dance so well that I introduced it at a practice recently. You know, on the "we used to walk 20 miles to school, uphill both ways" principle. The woman calling "got confused" and called "All out!" after only 3 figures. I can't imagine why...

Our second tour was a local tour with the Juggler Meadow Morris Men. They were very helpful and stamped their feet to ring bells for those of us that didn't have any.

That year we danced in the 1st annual Phome, an all women's ale that was organized by the Boston team of Ha'penny, but held in our territory in Western Mass. We got to see some really good teams that weekend. Besides Ha'penny and us, there was Ring o'Bells from New York, Spruce Hill from Philadelphia, and Muddy River, another Boston women's team.

The Phome was organized by Rose Sheehan of Ha'penny who was later to move out here and get sucked into our team as our musician.

One of the non-dance highlights was a formal dinner followed by a performance from each of the teams. We hadn't realized we would be expected to do anything other than stumble through our 3 dances. It seems hard to believe now, since we are such a singing team, but at that Ale, we couldn't even come up with a song to sing.

I remember parts of this tour quite well: it was the first time I danced out!

Later in the summer we danced at the Canterbury Fair. I wasn't there for the tour and the only notes I have on it are that it was the first time that Dale danced out and something about a pond with slime. Sounds like a good story. If I find out the rest, I'll let you know.

In the fall we danced out for the Columbus Day weekend. I remember a stand at the (now defunct, but still signed) Dried Flower Stand on Rtes 5&10 in Deerfield.

Our kit was a blue calico vest with white pants and shirts. We had originally planned the calico as the lining and having an applique of a trillium (that is, a Wakerobin) on the back. However, May came earlier than expected and the calico was more interesting than just plain blue. Besides, all the women's teams in the area danced Fieldtown and had blue vests. We wanted to be different! Eight years later we would go back to the trillium applique idea, but this time on a two-toned grey-backed green vest.

That fall and early winter we also got more new members, Kris Chamberlin, Nancy Edwards, Paula Entin, and Julie Rypysc. Nancy designed and made the Wake Robin ceramic pins that we all wear. Paula had danced on another team and was a great resource for us.

To our great joy, Cherie Bushey, who used to come down with Roger to teach us, moved to the area and joined our team.

We lost our Squire when Sara moved out West and Karen Blom took over that job.

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1983

The first of many kit changes took place this year. We switched from pants to white knickers with maroon socks and brown shoes so that we could all look like pouter pigeons. Hats, hats, we decided something about hats. Was it straw or black felt? I got a black felt, so I hope that was the choice, though I wouldn't swear to it.

Our big project of the year was to get out to the Midwest Ale in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We drove out with Juggler Meadow in 3 bright little cars and two old Volvos. A drive that would take 15 hours in one car took 24 hours.

I was brought up with the idea that it was a sin to get off a toll road except at your final exit. We got off the New York Thruway five (5) times. I don't remember all the reasons, but one was to find a notary public...

We checked out Niagara Falls from the Canadian side. Our two musicians were carrying their fiddles and we were followed by the park guards to make sure that they didn't play them because it was against the park rules.

The camp field near Ann Arbor was patrolled by the local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism. They also created the feast on Saturday evening. It was an interesting juxtaposition of crosswinds.

Marge Bruchac, from the Ann Arbor team, moved to our area later in the fall. Hers was a strong personality and talent that added a lot to our team.

This year Ha'Penny came to the Columbus Day Tour.

Deborah Campbell Strauss first showed up around this time. She seemed like such a quiet, well-behaved lady...

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1984

In an attempt to get out from the shadow of the men's team so we could develop our own team identity, we switched practice nights and locations.

We moved to the Leverett Town Hall on Thursday nights. It was a glorious place with wood floors instead of parquet covered cement.

We had a lot of new members this year. They came in waves by alphabet. One month 5 people would join whose names all started with "M"; the next month they'd be gone and we'd have all these "L" people to teach how to double step. I think we went through 25 new people that year and only one stuck. That one was Gretchen (Thornton) Krull, who after 2 months was often our sixth dancer. We had only 6 or 7 dancers dancing out for the season and, boy, were we tight!

Rose Sheehan had moved to Millers Falls by now. You'll see Rose's name crop up a lot in our history. She's been our musician, our foreman, our squire, our strongest singer over the course of many years.

We did NEFFA this year. We had 4 extra practices to learn the Mass Dances which was a lot of fun. Our repertoire had expanded considerably, helped along by the influx of new members from other teams.

In Fieldtown we had Banks of the Dee, Forester, Old Molly-Oxford, The Rose, Glorishers, Old Woman Tossed Up, Dearest Dicky, Shepherd's Hey, The Processional, Balance the Straw, Bobby & Joan, Waltzing Matilda, Nutting Girl, and Princess Royal.

We would also do the following as part of a Mass Dance: Bampton's Highland Mary, Step 'n Fetch Her, Maid of the Mill, and, of course, Bonnie Green; Bledington's Morning Star and Young Collins; Heddington's 29th of May and Constant Billy; Adderbury's Black Joke and Constant Billy; and, everyone's favorite, Litchfield Vandals.

Our schedule was also very ambitious for our size that year. We danced at the New England Small Farms Conference, NEFFA, Cushman May Day, the Phome, and up to the Toronto Ale on Labor Day weekend. I think this was the year we did separate, but equal Columbus Days.

During the fall we actively recruited new members. It was an interesting experiment, but unfortunately didn't find us new members with an excitement about Morris.

We invite you to join us -- Thursday, Oct 11, 7:15 p.m. at Leverett Town Hall -- for an introduction to the women of Wake Robin and the tradition of the Morris Dance. This is the first meeting of the year for new members -- a highly social event -- bring your enthusiasm!

We had a good turnout, but not many were left by spring. Was it something I said? This was the year we had Amy Hathaway, a bright addition to any team.

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1985

We were kicked out of our wonderful practice space at the Leverett Town Hall when someone discovered a bylaw against dancing in the Town Hall. Sigh, back to the Bangs, cement floors, and shin splints. Or, wait, maybe this was the year that we were at the Art Event in North Amherst. I think we moved practice to Monday, as well. Anyone having trouble finding us?

Rose, as our only musician, had Owen the month before our season started. Momma and baby did fine on all the tours.

Some of the tours from this year are The 8th New England Arts Biennial, the Quail Ale in Washington, D.C. (sheep! sheep!), and first written record of dancing May Day morning itself. It's hard to believe, but I don't think we danced out on May Day itself in '83 or '84.

This is also, I think, the first year of the Montague May Day. Every year since we've done Cushman May Day on the Saturday and Montague May Day on the Sunday. (Well, except for that year when May Day itself, Cushman, and Montague all fell on the same day. That was so hectic, there wasn't time to have fun.)

The Fall Harvest Festival (a.k.a. Columbus Day Tour) was based out of Camp Lion Knoll this year. New Haven (always a fun team) danced with us and Newtowne (a legend, each and every one of them) danced with the men.

to be continued ...

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List of Officers

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