Mianus River Morris, organized around 1977, was a mixed Cotswold Morris side (mixed = includes both men and women dancers) whose stomping (and capering and beetle-crushing) grounds included the villages of lower Fairfield County, Connecticut and Westchester County, New York, to the north and east of New York City. We performed stick, handkerchief and hand-clapping dances from many village traditions including Bampton, Adderbury, Bledington, Bucknell and quite a few more. Our musicians included Leah Barkan and Paul Kerlee on accordion and other instruments, with occasional help from Andy Kuntz, Jim Norman, Walter Olson and others. The last Squires (people who ran the group) were John and Carol Mazza. (See the member list for previous squires.) Our kit included white shirts, brown knickers and orange baldrics with shield, and orange, green and yellow ribbons. We are immortalized somewhere around page 180 of Martha Stewart's Wedding Book, depicted dancing at a wedding in Stamford in 1984.

(A litle bit on our roots from Connie Rockman's history of the Round Hill Contra Dance)
"Under the guidance of teacher Tony Poile, a group of Greenwich boys formed the Greenwich Guard Rapper Team which perfomed during the BiCentenniel Celebration in New York in 1976. Not to be left out, the girls began to learn Morris dances from Tony during practice sessions, forming a Morris team called the Burgundy Belles. Gail Beers and Amy Brewer, the two team members who were still in high school in the fall of 1977, started the Mianus River Morris Team with Tony Poile’s help that year..."

The team has now been disbanded, having had our last performance on 5/16/04, but we'd love to hear from you.

How about some songs? (with RealAudio files!)

Morris music - the tunes to the dances (with RealAudio files!)

Member list  

A Chronology (This is where the pictures are.)

Morris Video!!

What traditions we dance and how to dance them

Some Maypole info

Some words of wisdom

Accomplished children's music teacher Paul Kerlee, of Mianus River Morris, has published two books "Welcome in the Spring" and Son of Welcome In The Spring, which are highly recommended. It has a tape (or 2 CDs) of Morris music included as well! It can be ordered from the publisher World Music Press or see CDSS .
 
 
 

Some Morris links

• Jeff Bigler's list of Morris teams on the web .

• Rich Holmes' "all known" Morris pages

• Morris Dance Discussion List. Sign up! Good for a laugh a day.
 
• Yahoo Morris Club . (Founded by John L.) Has some nice features: you can post messages and pictures. Note also the Yahoo Morris Calendar and Performance sites.