This Friday marks Whiskey Rebellion’s first May Day Celebration in Pittsburgh, and I don’t know about you all, but I’m getting really excited!!
There’s a little blurb up on the website that gives the public details about what we are doing on May Day — feel free to use that to disseminate the information to friends, co-workers, strangers on the street, etc. 
For the team members, here’s the nitty-gritty details for the day:
Dawn
- Location: Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in front of the statue of Columbus at the corner of Schenely Dr and Frew St.
- Parking: Park on Frew St. It should be free and plentiful at dawn.
- Arrival time: Arrive by 6 AM to allow time for us to get set up.
- Performance time: 6:30 - 7:00 AM
- Plan: We’ll have some speeches, dance 4-5 dances, sing the May Day song, eat some May Day cake, and watch the sun come up. Good times.
Breakfast
- After the dawn dancing, we plan to walk over to Pamela’s in Oakland for breakfast. It’s about a fifteen minute walk, and it opens at 7:30 AM so that should be about right once we finish dancing and walk over there. Since we are arriving just as they open we should avoid the inevitable line.
After-Breakfast Guerilla Dancing
After breakfast, we plan to do some guerilla dancing around Oakland. We’re trying not to over-plan this part of the day — we have a rough plan on where we’ll go, and we’ll probably do a dance or two at each location, but where we’ll be when and how long we will go for depends on people’s stamina and other constraints. Here are the rough plans for where we might be dancing after breakfast, in an order that makes sense as we make our way back toward our starting location:
- Cathedral of Learning
- Main Library in Oakland
- Phipps Conservatory, in the garden
- CMU campus
Dinner
We haven’t discussed this, but would people like to plan to get together for a May Day Eve dinner out, say at the Church Brew Works? I was thinking about going there with Tom and Lina ~5 PM, and we’d be happy to have company!!
May Day Eve Contra Dance:
We are planning on doing a dance during the break at the contra dance that evening. Amarilis is playing, and Ted Crane from Ithaca (a former morris dancer!) is calling, so it should be good times. I’m not sure exactly when the break happens, but people should probably plan on getting there by 9 PM at the latest.
We have a website! Woohoo!!
Thx, Tom
Agenda Items:
- Tuesday night demo/teaching @ International Dance
- May Day morning - who is available?
- May Day weekend w’ Hicks with Sticks - who’s interested/available?
- Dog Days Ale (July 24-26) - who’s interested/available?
- Bucknell Workshop details — who will be in charge of a) Saturday breakfast, b) Saturday lunch, c) Saturday dinner, and d) Sunday brunch; e) who can put people up?
Decisions that were made:
Re: #1:Yes: Karin and Tory; Maybe: Barbara; If-necessary: Dorolyn; No: Tom
Re: #2: I failed to write stuff down. :-/
Re #3: Yes: Karin, Tom; Intrigued: Tory
Re #4: Yes: Tory, Karin, Tom, Lina; Maybe: Dorolyn; Probably not: Barbara
Re: #5a: Tom will take care of everything.
Re: #5b: Tory is organizing, will be soliciting potluck items.
Re: #5c: Karin is organizing - already set up to go to the Church Brew Works at 5 PM (or earlier).
Re: #5d: Karin is organizing, will be soliciting potluck items.
Re: #5e: Many responses received via email. We could still use a non-pet household (do we have any?!) for a single male. Otherwise I think we are fine, but if anyone else wants to step forward please shout out.
We just had a quick after-practice meeting last week. Here are the things that were decided:
- Karin made a prototype arm ribbon, which was approved with minor modifications (remove lighter yellow ribbon). It was decided to use the same rosette on the bell pads (with shorter ribbons), using just one per bell pad (on the outside of the leg). Karin will take care of purchasing the ribbon for the team, probably via mail order.
- Kit was distributed to all who needed it for Saturday’s demo at the Scottish dance. (Good job everyone, by the way! )
- We discussed who could do a demo at the English Country dance on Feb. 14th. People available are:
- Tory
- Susan
- Dorolyn
- Karin
- Allison
- We discussed who could do a demo at the contra dance on either Feb. 6th or Feb. 14th. The 6th turned out to be the only one of the two that we had critical mass for, so there you go. We have made contact with the caller and gotten the go-ahead to do the dance at the break. Cool beans. People who said they are available are:
- Tory
- Jim L
- Karin
- Kay
- Allison (if we absolutely need her)
- That’s all for now, folks!
Whiskey Rebellion
Pittsburgh’s Newest Morris Team!
Invites YOU to a
Morris Dancing Workshop
Saturday, February 21st
Time: 9:30 – 4:00 (includes break for lunch)
Place: Wilkins School Community Center in Swissvale
Fee: $15 (includes lunch)
Pre-registration required Contact: Karin Howe
Phone: (315) 450-4306 Email: karinhowe@gmail.com
Click Here for a printable flyer for this event
What IS morris dancing, you ask?
Briefly, Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs may also be wielded by the dancers. The dancers also usually wear bells and colorful costumes. (Source: Wikipedia)
Other descriptions and information about morris dancing may be found at:
“What is Morris Dancing?” (Source: Bassett Street Hounds, Syracuse, NY)
Morris Dancing FAQs (Source: our own Tom Keays)
Origin of the Morris (Source: Red Herring Morris, Boston, MA)
We hope you’ll join us, and find out what morris dancing is all about!
Last week we had a kit discussion meeting at Karin, Tom and Lina’s house in Regent Square to discuss what our kit should be like.
We came to consensus on the following items:
- Black pants (jeans or dress trousers)
- Long-sleeved button down shirt (men’s dress shirt style)
- Black shoes (sneaker-type)
- Vest, not baldricks (more on this later)
- Rag coat worn over vest (or with vest removed) for Border dances
- Small three-dimensional rosettes with long(ish) ribbons for flashers
- Another rosette with long(er) ribbons placed high up on back of vest (centered)
- A color “theme” of Smoke and Fire was agreed upon (more on this later)
Details of vest discussion:
Some points of consensus:
- Colors: Dark grey is preferred, with a possibility of red as an alternate choice. Yellow was rejected out of hand as looking yucky on a lot of people.
- A looser fitting vest is preferred over a form-fitting vest — basically, it should look good on both men and women. Also, it was commented that a somewhat longer vest is good — keeps the dancer’s shirts from “pooking out.”
- A suggestion was made to buy the vests rather than make them. This was agreed upon as a possibility, depending on materials/sizes available/color match/price and, most importantly, perceived future availability.
Some points left to be still decided:
- Make vs. Buy: someone needs to research these alternatives, and possibly even obtain/make a prototype.
Details about colors:
As I said, we are going with a “theme” of Fire and Smoke (or was it Smoke and Fire? - doesn’t matter). Thus, our colors will be: dark grey, red, yellow, and possibly (dark) orange as an accent color. Exact colors TBD based on prototype, which Karin is working up this week.
These will also be the colors for our rag coats, with a strong emphasis on the brighter colors (yellow, orange, and red), with grey or black as accent colors.
Details needing to be decided:
- Exactly what the vest will look like.
- Rag coat - need prototype
- Ribbons for back and arms - need prototype
- Bell pads - naked or covered with ribbons? One proposal was naked, with a rosette on either side of the bell pad. A prototype of this would be helpful in making the decision, as well.
- Sock color - a proposal was made for red socks as an official kit, but no decision was reached.
- Hat or no hat? So far the consensus seems to be “hat optional, at least while we’re dancing,” due to the fact that certain members of the team find it impossible to keep hats ON.
So, that’s where we are, so far! Not bad for a start.
Minutes for after-practice meeting:
We decided to do a demo dance at the Scottish dance next week (Jan 31st), and a demo dance at the English Country dance on Feb. 14th.
Dancers available for Jan 31st:
If memory serves, the following dancers (and musician) said they could be there:
- Karin
- Doralyn
- Kay
- Tory
- Allison
Also possibly available:
For this demo, we are planning on wearing:
- Black pants
- White shirts
- Some kind of bells (whatever you have - bells will be loaned to those without their own pair)
- Some kind of arm ribbons (see above)
- Sneakers and socks of any color
Hopefully by the next demo we will have something more approaching “real kit” to wear!
We’ve decided to do Ockington for the demo.
Dancers (and musician) available for the 14th:
- Allison
- Doralyn
- Karin
- ?
- ?
I need to get commitments from people from this next week, and write them down. lol
Also, we need to find out who is available to do a demo at a contra dance on either Feb. 6th or 13th (note: also need to get permission from the contra dance people to do a demo)
Now that we have a name for the team, it’s time to come up with a kit!
Please fill out this survey and let us know if you are interested in being a part of this discussion, and if so, when are good times for you to meet. I’d like to do it next weekend, if possible, since Jim and Tom will both be down then.
A quick recap of the meeting we had after practice yesterday, for those who weren’t there:
Brief after-practice meeting:
As you can see in my post just before this one, we decided on a name for the team — Whiskey Rebellion! Discussion was heated but amicable.
After that, Tory, Barbara and Karin retired to Karin’s house for pizza and beer, and a discussion of the Bucknell workshop.
Information:
Report from Tory: The WSCC has our usual room available for Feb 21st, but not the larger room. This could work, but would be tight. The kitchen is available for an extra $5, so we could heat up food there if we wanted to. No alcohol is allowed.
Decisions:
Karin will look into Miflin Methodist Church and the Environmental School as possible alternatives for a location for the workshop.
Lunch will be held at someone’s house, thus negating the need for a kitchen (and allowing us to serve beer).
We’re looking at the following schedule for the workshop:
- 9:30 - 10:00: Coffee and registration.
- 10:00 - 12:00: Workshop
- 12:00 - 2:00: Lunch
- 2:00 - 4:00: Workshop
- 5:00: Dinner?
We didn’t talk about Sunday, but I believe we are tentatively planning a potluck brunch at Karin’s house.
Things we need to know from the team, especially the Scottish contingent:
1. Who is planning/able to have dinner with Ann Arbor after the workshop? What are your constraints, time-wise and location-wise?
2. Who is available to do demo dances at:
- Scottish dance: either Jan. 31st, Feb. 7th or Feb. 14th (to be determined in discussion with the Scottish dancers). Note: Jan 31st would probably be the best date for us to do the Scottish dance, given the the English Country dance is on the 14th, and there is some (other) event on the 7th which is likely to make attendance light.
- English Country dance: Feb. 14th (provisional on approval from the organizers)
- Contra dance: Feb. 6th or Feb. 13th (provisional on approval from the organizers)
3. Who can put people from Ann Arbor up? If you can, please let us know how many people can you host (and whether they should be couples or singles or what have you).
We’ve finally decided on a name for the new morris team!
Everyone give a huge hoot and a holler for ……..
Whiskey Rebellion!!
Go to SurveyMonkey and voice your opinions on our proposed team names!
(Votes made by non-members will not affect the outcome but may be cast the purposes of the non-members freedom of expression)
