Bassett Street Hounds

Dog Days Ale

2012-01-17T08:36:43-06:00

Dog Days Ale

We've been holding the Dog Days Ale pretty much annually since 1994 (although there was a break in 1996 and 1997 as the team reorganized). The first three ales were held north of Syracuse, centered roughly on Cleveland, NY. Since 1999, we've based them at Peter Hoover's farm in Trumansburg, near Ithaca, NY.

List of Ales

Dog Days Ale, July 13-15, 2012, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Green Man Ale, June 17-19, 2011, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Silver Anniversary Ale, July 9-11, 2010, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : De Evolution of Morris Dancing, July 24-26, 2009, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Solar-Powered Morris, June 20-22, 2008, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : An Inconvenient Woof, July 27-29, 2007, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Year of the Fire Dog, August 4-6, 2006, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Double DecaDance, July 15-17, 2005, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Leap Year Ale, July 16-18, 2004, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Prime Ale Howl, July 11-13, 2003, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Palindrome Ale, July 26-28, 2002, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : 2001: A Dance Odyssey, July 6-8, 2001, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : CentenniAle, July 7-9, 2000, Trumansburg, NY
Going to the D.O.G.S., June 11-13, 1999, Trumansburg, NY
Dog Days Ale : Wag Your T'Ale, June 12-14, 1998, Cleveland, NY
Dog Days Ale : Sirius Morris Dancing, June 1995, Cleveland, NY
Dog Days Ale, June 1994, Cleveland, NY

About Us

2011-05-26T14:02:32-06:00

About Us

If you thought you knew what morris dancing was, you may just have to throw it all out the window. The Bassett Street Hounds perform a boisterous and energetic style of dancing known as border morris which comes from the English counties of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. No prettified dancing with hankies and ribbons for us! With the Hounds, it's all sticks and rags, clashing and shouting!

(Download PDF brochure)

Traditionally, border morris was danced during December and January when farmers were seasonally out of work. Drawing from other mid-winter customs such as wassailing and mumming, dancers went from door-to-door performing for their neighbors for a bit of cash or drink. Often a form of ritual disguise was involved, blackening the face with charcoal and disguising the body with bits of rags (“tatters”) sewn or pinned to shirts and jackets. Although the custom was frowned upon by the local authorities, the villagers delighted in the dancesí complicated patterns and forceful sticking.

Although many morris dances from the Cotswold region of England were extensively collected at the end of the 19th century, the dances from the Welsh borderlands did not receive the same attention. Not until the 1930s did researchers attempt to document border morris, by which time most of the traditional village teams had died out. That the dancing was associated with begging made informants reluctant to admit their involvement with it, leaving researchers with scanty second-hand information.

Today, border morris describes a general style of dancing rather than encompassing dances from a particular region or village. The Hounds no longer perform any of the collected dances. Instead we base our repertoire on dances learned from two prominent English border morris revival teams, the Shropshire Bedlams and Red Stags, together with a growing number of dances that we have creatively remembered (“we make 'em up”). Our own dances, in turn, are danced by other teams in the United States, Canada and England.

The Bassett Street Hounds are a performance-oriented border morris team, dancing throughout the year. The Hounds were formed in fall 1984 and first performed on May Day morning, 1985. We have exclusively danced border morris since 1996.

The Hounds may be booked for events and functions. For terms, contact our Squire.

We welcome new dancers at any time and of any skill level. Please visit one of our practices to learn more. We practice at the Westcott Community Center, on the corner of Euclid Ave. and Westcott St. on Monday evenings from 7:00-8:30 pm. See our web page for our practice and performance schedules and for other information at bassett-street-hounds.org.

Contact the Bassett Street Hounds

2011-01-01T19:05:35-06:00

Contact the Bassett Street Hounds

The contact URL is http://bassett-street-hounds.org/contact/.

Dances

2011-05-22T16:15:06-06:00

Dances

Although the Hounds originally learned border morris from Lake Effect Morris in Rochester (defunct), who taught us traditional collected dances, we've moved on and no longer perform any of these. In 1996, when we first became a full-time border team, we had already been performing a good number of dances obtained from two prominent English border morris revival teams, the Shropshire Bedlams and Red Stags. Today, most of our repertoire consists of dances that we have creatively remembered (“we make 'em up”). Our own dances, in turn, are danced by other teams in the United States, Canada and England. ¹⁾

Active Repertoire

We define this list as dances we've performed in the past five years. Every season, we select 8 or so dances to work on and highlight. We may not be actively practicing the rest of them, but they generally stay in the mix. As for the dances that we've learned from other teams, they are, to varying degrees, similar to how they were originally performed. In a few cases, encouraged by the source team, we have made modifications that might make intermingling our sets in mass dances, shall we say, interesting.

Alexandra Park Road Stick Dance, N.22.5 (New St. George)
Belligerent Bluejay (Hounds)
The Cuckoo's Nest (Hounds)
Darwin's Revenge (Hounds)
Dawley (Shropshire Bedlams/Red Stags)
The Drunken Idiot (Hounds)
Five In A Bed (Red Stags)
I Can Hew (Hounds)
Just In Time (Hounds)
Morningstar (Hounds)
Mr Dolly (Red Stags)
Northern Star (Hounds)
Northumberland Gypsy (Hounds)
Northumberland Musketeers (Hounds)
Ockington (Ockington Morris)
The Prisoner (Red Stags)
Ring O' Bells (Hounds)
Southern Cross (Hounds)
Weobley Handclap Dance (Red Stags)

Not Active

With new dances coming into our repertoire, there are a few dances that fell away and are no longer practiced.

Hunt the Snark (Hounds)
Morning Glory (Red Stags)
Not a Banana (Hounds)
Titterstone Clee (Red Stags)
Weobley Hanky Dance (Red Stags)

Other Border Dances

Performed as the occasion demands. These were never officially in our repertoire but are dances we've, individually or collectively, worked on and have even performed. Notes are, therefore, sketchy or missing.

Blake's Seven (Red Stags)
Dilwyn (traditional)
Four Lanes End (Shropshire Bedlams)
Weobley Stick Dance (Red Stags)
Woodhouse Bog (Kearn Morris via MOTley Morris)

Cotswold Dances

Obligatory processionals and recessionals. We promise approximation rather than precision in our performance of these.

Balance the Straw (Fieldtown)
Bonnie Green Garters (Bampton)
Step Back (Fieldtown)
Soldier O Processional (Minnesota Traditional Morris)
Winster Processional

Tunes

Tunes for our dances are available as a PDF tunebook and as an ABC file.

Workshops

Our dance fore, Mike Miller, has traveled around the country over the years giving border morris workshops. Usually, he tries to combine these with his business travel, but he's an accommodating guy. Contact Mike if you would to have him teach a workshop in your town.

Share and Enjoy

This work by the Bassett Street Hounds is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. This just means that you are welcome to perform and modify any of our dances, but we would like them to be attributed to us and to the individual authors who composed them, if that information is provided. Any dances that your team derives from ours, even if substantial modified, should also be made available under the same Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. We cannot specify the licensing terms of dances we've learned from other teams, but our practice has been to share them similarly to how we share our own and to link back to the original versions whenever possible. All copyrights belong to the original authors.

¹⁾ Other teams' dance notes are linked at the bottom of the ”What is Border Morris?” page.

Photo Albums

2011-01-06T22:01:52-06:00

Photo Albums

Our main photo album, until recently, was actually maintained by one of our members at
http://tomkeays.com/morris/hounds/gallery/. We'll pull in some of that content again as soon as possible.

Flickr Photos

Those tagged ”dog days ale”

Morris Kit

2011-01-01T14:11:36-06:00

Morris Links

2011-07-27T08:34:48-06:00

Morris Links

Morris Dancing in Syracuse

Thornden Morris is an all-women's Cotswold team. First performing in 1981, it is the first successful morris team in Syracuse.
Ribbonsteel Rapper is a mixed gender, short sword team founded in 1989.
Wild Blue Morris is a mixed gender, Cotswold team founded in 2008. It only practices for a few months in the winter and has a short dance season in the spring.
Morris Dancing in Syracuse, NY, by Rich Holmes, details the local history of morris dancing in our fair city and is a good place to find out what other teams have existed in the area.

May Day

2011-12-15T07:23:21-06:00

May Day

May 1, 6:00 a.m., Thornden Park Watertower Hill.

A Syracuse Tradition Since 1981

Every year since 1985, the Bassett Street Hounds have joined Thornden Morris and other local morris teams in presenting a May Day dawn celebration atop Watertower Hill in Thornden Park. (See directions to the park)

Although we never be sure of the details of what will happen, there are certain things you can count on:

We will dance up the sun. Festivities start at dawn, which on May 1 is 6:00 a.m. Our audience has shown up, often without any advance warning or publicity, in large numbers. From 100-200 people show up every year in all kinds of weather. Amazing!
There will be a processional dance performed by all of the morris dancers to start things off. A grand entrance.
The morris dancers will dance! Over and over. For an hour. We generally count on five ritual dance teams to perform, Thornden Morris, Ribbonsteel Rapper, Heartwood Morris, Wild Blue Morris, and the Hounds, so that means one or two dances per team.
We will perform the Mumming Play in which the themes of life and death, winter and renewal will be celebrated. Much hilarity for all.
Urchins will go among you begging money for beer. In return, we will give you the morris cake and branches of May with promises/threats of fertility and/or good luck. It's hooey but we can't seem to stop ourselves.
We will sing a May song or two; very likely the Furry Day Carol.
We end things up leading the audience in the Maypole dance. We use the Playford tune known as Sellenger's Round for the dance.

May Day Celebrations Elsewhere

If you can't make it to May Day in Syracuse, Ric Goldman's May Day Morris provides a listing of celebrations around the country.

Photos

See photos from past May Day celebrations. 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995

Members

2011-05-27T10:45:09-06:00

Members

Log into the Members-only space

You need a password for this. Contact Tom to get a reminder what this is.

menu1

2011-01-01T23:01:40-06:00

What is Morris Dancing?

2011-07-27T09:16:20-06:00

What is Morris Dancing?

“Morris dancing is a celebration, a display of dance and music performed at seasonal festivals and holidays to banish the dark of winter, celebrate the warmth and fertility of summer, and bring in autumn's golden harvest.” Pretty fancy words for a lot of jumping around and trying not to run into each other, no? But all true. The morris is an ancient tradition that has survived and evolved over the course of many centuries.

Morris dancing is a show dance. It is not a social dance like English Ceili or Playford dancing or like the American counterparts of square dancing or contra dancing. It is performed by a troupe of dancers for an audience. Little is known about the origin of morris dancing although speculation runs rampant. Something like the morris probably was being done in Europe centuries ago, well before the time of Shakespeare who was kind enough to give the tradition some publicity by mentioning it several times in his plays.

Over the past five hundred years in the Cotswolds and the Welsh border counties of England the morris developed into the rich and colorful tradition we know today. Each village's morris team developed its own style of dancing and its own costume decorated with bells and colored ribbons for festivity and luck.

The morris was nearly lost when the Industrial Revolution eroded folk life and custom, but it has rebounded and spread across the world. Today, Morris dancing is danced in many places in Britain and around the world. There are a number of different types of dance that, rightly or wrongly, get lumped in with Morris: North West morris, Cotswold morris, Border morris, Longsword, Rapper (or Short Sword), Molly, and Clog dance.

The Hounds currently dance Border morris, but began life as a Cotswold team, performing Adderbury, Bampton, Headington, and Oddington styles.

Cotswold Morris : Between 1750 and 1850, a style of morris flourished in a tiny thirty mile by thirty mile area including and running east from the Cotswold hills of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, England. It is the morris that Cecil Sharp, the famous English folklorist, documented and taught to the English middle class as an example of vanishing English folk custom. Sharp's efforts fostered a revival of this style of morris, Cotswold morris, that made it the most common form danced today.

Border Morris : A much different kind of Morris dancing than Cotswold style. It was the favored form danced by the coal miners of the Welsh/English border and is typified by rather rougher looking outfits than the Cotswold sides, lots more stick dances, and plenty of grunting, yelling, and various other less-than-couth antics.

Morris Glossary

As with any other specialized activity, there is a vocabulary of Morris terms to describe various aspects of the dancing.

Ale – a gathering of dancers. These are usually non-competetive, although teams generally want to show off their best dances. The name comes down from medieval times when the village church sponsored seasonal fairs and provided ale to entice people to come. These fairs, which themselves became known as ales, were favorite places for morris dancers to perform.
Caller – the person, generally at the front left of the set, who calls out the figures of the dance.
Chorus – the part of each dance which distinguishes it from others in the same tradition. Generally, a dance is either a set dance, in which all dancers do the chorus together, or a corner dance, in which two dancers at a time, the two sets of diagonal corners and then the pair in the middle, dance the steps. The choruses alternate with the figures, q.v.
Dance Out – a performance; can also refer to a whole day of performances at multiple venues.
Figure – a set of patterned steps which the whole set does together. Each tradition has its own set of figures (there is considerable overlap between traditions), which are generally the same in all of the dances of that tradition.
Jig – a dance for one or two dancers. Mostly Cotswold.
Kit – the costume worn by the dancers. Each team designs its own kit, which usually starts with a white shirt and leather pads covered with bells and (sometimes) ribbons. Everything else is variable and distinctive of a team. In Cotswold morris, dancers wear white or color trousers or britches (“knickers” for you Yanks), and either a colored vest or tunic or baldrics (ribbons crossed over the chest) with arms and legs decorated with bright ribbons. In Border morris, the kit is a bit wilder and usually consists of strips of cloth, usually called tatters or rags, sewn all over a shirt, jacket and/or trousers. Dancers often “black up” – ie, wear black face as a form of ritual disguise. In this age of political correctness, however, many teams skip this or else wear clown makeup or masks instead.
Set – the group of dancers performing a dance. In Cotswold, generally six dancers. In Border, the numbers are more variable with four, six, eight or multiples of four being common. The Hounds have done dances in sets of five and seven as well.
Team – an organized group of dancers who rehearse and perform together. Also known as a side. Teams may be all-male, all-female, or mixed. There is a certain amount of carping about which of these formats is traditional, and therefore correct. Recent history argues for men only as dancers, but older historical records suggest that women have always been involved.
Tradition – a particular style associated with a particular town. Although certain elements of the morris are shared, in each village the local team developed its own style with its own versions of steps, figures, etc. Thus, the Bledington tradition, the Bampton tradition, etc. Border morris differs a bit from Cotswold morris in that there were historically fewer dances done by each village (or at least fewer that have survived).

Morris Books

Some good overview books include:

A Handbook of Morris Dances (aka “The Black Book”) by Lionel Bacon, The Morris Ring, 1974. (Find in a LIbrary)
Six Fools and a Dancer by Anthony Barrand, Northern Harmony Publ., 1991, ISBN 0-9627554-1-9. (Find in a LIbrary)
The History of Morris Dancing, 1438-1750 by John Forrest, University of Toronto Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8020-0921-2. (Find in a LIbrary)
The Roots of Welsh Border Morris : the Welsh Border Dances of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire by Dave Jones, Publ. by Dave Jones, 1988. (Find in a LIbrary)
The Morris Book by Cecil Sharp and Herbert MacIlwaine, The Morris Ring, 1991, ISBN 0-95030203-5. (Find in a LIbrary)

Morris Dancing in Syracuse

There have been a surprising number of morris teams in Syracuse since the 1980s. These three teams are still performing.

Thornden Morris is an all-women's Cotswold team. First performing in 1981, it is the first successful morris team in Syracuse.
Ribbonsteel Rapper is a mixed gender, short sword team founded in 1989.
Wild Blue Morris is a mixed gender, Cotswold team founded in 2008. It only practices for a few months in the winter and has a short dance season in the spring.
Morris Dancing in Syracuse, NY, by Rich Holmes, details the local history of morris dancing in our fair city and is a good place to find out what other teams have existed in the area.

Morris & Folk Dance Organizations

MorrisDancing.Org: a joint project of the the three English morris organizations to act a gateway to other morris-related sites. Still in its infancy but it promises to be the definite morris meta site. Read Janet Dowling's ”Morris On the Internet- Developing a Strategy” to get a feel for where this is going.
The Morris Ring: founded in 1934 is the oldest and most venerated of all Morris organizations. Also has links to individual pages maintained by the various Ring officers.
The Morris Federation: originally formed as The Women's Morris Federation to provide an alternative to the all male Morris Ring, it now admits men's, women's and mixed teams.
Open Morris: the most informal and family-oriented Morris organization.
The Australian Morris Ring: the down-under morris organization. Unlike their English namesake, accepts membership from mixed and women's sides.
English Folk Dance and Song Society: Founded in London in 1911 by Cecil Sharp as the English Folk Dance Society, the EFDSS aims to encourage, document and develop folk music, dance and song traditions within England. It publishes CDs, books, English Dance & Song magazine, the Folk Music Journal, as well as educational resources.
Country Dance and Song Society: The CDSS was founded in 1915 with the help of Englishman Cecil Sharp, a musician who traveled in his own country and in the southern United States collecting folk dances and songs. Today, the CDSS collects and documents English and related American folk traditions in the United States.

2012 Performances

2012-01-17T13:51:18-06:00

2012 Performances

Our shows usually take place outside in public spaces so you don't need to do anything special to attend. Just show up and enjoy.

April 22

NEFFA Festival. Weekend Event. Mansfield, MA.

The New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA) puts on its annual music and dance festival each April. It has become the first dance performance for many morris and sword teams throughout the northeast and features continuous performances at the main entrance throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday. This year we perform on Sunday morning.

Schedule

Sunday, April 22 –10:00-11:00 am – performing with Great Meadows Morris and Sword and Griggstown Lock Rapper Sword

May 1

May Day Celebration, Thornden Park water tower, Syracuse, NY. 6:00 a.m. (dawn!)

This year is the 32nd May Day celebrated on Water Tower Hill by Syracuse's original morris team, Thornden Morris. It is the Hound's 28th appearance. We are joined by Ribbonsteel Rapper, Wild Blue Morris, and Heartwood Morris.

Schedule

6:00 am – Thornden Park Water Tower
Other performances during the day (TBD)

July 13-15

Dog Days Ale. Weekend Event. Trumansburg, NY and environs.

We've held this ale pretty much annually since 1994. As usual, we will be hosting it in the Finger Lakes surrounding Trumansburg, NY. See the Dog Days Ale page for more detailed information.

Past Performances

2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997

PHP Code

2011-01-01T14:13:51-06:00

Come to a Practice

2011-06-10T06:18:44-06:00

Come to a Practice

As you watch the morris, keep one thing in mind: We are having more fun than you are. We dance because it helps us keep active and in shape; because we like being a part of the worldwide community of morris dancers; because it satisfies our need, and the need of our audiences, for tradition and celebration; and, mainly, because it's so much fun, it shouldn't be legal.

If you're in reasonable physical shape, have a decent sense of rhythm, and are willing to practice, we can make a morris dancer out of you. Our dances are easy to learn and new comers are always welcome. If you start in the fall or early winter, you'll probably be ready for public performances in the coming spring. Practices in the winter months are especially good for new comers since we are able to spend more time teaching dances than we can during the height of our summer performance season. Musicians are welcome as well.

Practice Time & Location

We practice every Monday evening at 7:00pm in the upstairs multi-purpose room at the Westcott Community Center located at the corner of Euclid and Westcott Streets in Syracuse. (See map for location)

If you have ever considered trying morris dancing, NOW would be an excellent time to check out one of our practices.

Call or email Mike to confirm the practice time and place.

Map

View Larger Map

Scott Nicholson on Why I Do Morris Dancing

This is from Scott Nicholson's ongoing video blog, “Scott's Stuff”. Mostly he talks about board games and libraries, but he has several videos about morris dancing and the Hounds.

Source: Scott Nicholson @ YouTube

sidebar

2012-01-17T07:27:52-06:00

We are the Bassett Street Hounds

2011-01-01T14:13:55-06:00

Test Page

2011-01-01T14:13:56-06:00

Videos

2011-06-10T07:05:04-06:00

Videos

Northumberland Gypsy & The Prisoner

Here are two dances, Northumberland Gypsy and The Prisoner that the Bassett Street Hounds performed at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair on September 21, 2008. Intended for non-morris dancing followers of his blog, Scott Nicholson gives a nice overview of our dances and border morris.

Source: Scott Nicholson @ YouTube

Ockington Stick Dance

The Bassett Street Hounds perform their version of the Ockington Stick Dance on May Day (2011-05-01) in downtown Syracuse.

Source: Tom Keays @ YouTube

Scott Nicholson on Why I Do Morris Dancing

This is from Scott Nicholson's ongoing video blog, “Scott's Stuff”. Mostly he talks about board games and libraries, but he has several videos about morris dancing and the Hounds.

Source: Scott Nicholson @ YouTube

Julia Schult on What Is Morris Dancing

This video was put together in 2004 for multimedia course at Hamilton College. It is a nice overview of the different kinds of morris dancing and related customs.

Source: Julia Schult @ YouTube

Wiki Help

2011-01-01T14:14:01-06:00