Peter Leibert organized
the Westerly Morris Men in 1974.
The tradition that we dance is primarily Cotswold. We dance Bampton,
Adderbury, Bledington, Litchfield, Fieldtown, and Headington.
The Westerly Morris Men practice the 2nd and 4th Tuesday night
of every month at 7:30, in the community room over McQuade's
Supermarket, on Main Street, Westerly, Rhode Island.
Please email us if you plan to attend. Sometimes we cancel due
to bad weather, lack of dancers, or the beer truck didn't come.
EVENTS
The
Vernal Equinox climb up Lantern Hill
John Morris Flitzer Newletter
THE WESTERLY MORRIS MEN ON TOP OF LANTERN
HILL
CELEBRATING THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING
THE VERNAL EQUINOX
MARCH 20, 2001
"Founder
Peter Leibert and son Damon"
Vernal Equinox 1997 on Lantern Hill, Connecticut
Back row left to right:
Allen Lawton, Terry Crandall,
Rick Larson, Baggman Herb Nickel, Kurt Hanson, Norm Dudziak,
Hal Walker, Everett Munro,
Baggman Emeritus and Hobbyhorse
George Utter
Kneeling left to right:
Ian Patton, Musician and
founder Peter Leibert, Scott Patton, Wally Fenn
Current Squire Peter Leibert
and past Squire Terry Crandall
full size photo not available
because they were not wearing pants
( not shown assistant
to the Squire Everett Munro)
however he was wearing pants
For information
on how you can have the Westerly Morris Men dance at your special
event or function,
please contact
our us.
Terry Crandall
terrycran@cox.net
The Westerly
Morris men sing!
101KB wave file. If you can't play it don't
click it
What is English Morris Dancing?
written by Jane Leibert
The English Morris is the modern
survival of a primitive pre-Christian ceremonial of ritual dance
and drama to insure and celebrate the renewal of Spring.
This rite once flourished over all of Europe and even today
dances similar to the Morris can be seen in parts of France, Spain,
Rumania, and Portugal.
Morris Dancers in the past frequently blackened their faces
(a few teams still do) as a disguise, a practice which survived
from the primitive ritual.
Morris dancing enjoyed a period of great popularity about 400
years ago and was widely used as an entertainment at court as
well as in the country. The derivation of the word Morris is lost
in obscurity. However, one popular theory is that when the original
name and meaning of the rite were no longer remembered, the dance
was called Moorish or Morris because the current word, at that
time for black man was Moor.
The Morris Men's ceremonial dances celebrate the passing of
Winter and the renewal of Spring and promote fertility in field,
flock and man.
The Morris teams or sides, are often accompanied by their Hobby
Horse, an animal-man. Westerly also has their "Hobby Horse"
a recreation of a red North American Lobster, after it has been
boiled.
The Westerly Morris Men were organized by Peter Leibert in
1975. We dance primarily in the tradition from the Cotswold region.
Pete Ashworth (original member
of The Saddleworth Morris Men) visiting us from the UK
co-squires Wally Fenn and Peter
Leibert
feeling no pain
please visit
http://www.morrisdancing.org/
It's...the
Not For Joes!
this page is maintained by Terry P. Crandall
terrycran@cox.net
