The Ravenswood Morris Web Page
Please note:
Ravenswood Morris has disbanded and this site remains for historic purposes
only. For more information about Morris dancing in Chicago, please visit:
Pullman Morris and Sword: http://pullmanmorris.org/
and the Midwest
Ale 2015 site:
http://www.midwestmorrisale.org/ales/2015/ale/index.html
For any
questions about Ravenswood Morris, please contact Gary Plazyk, g_plazyk@ix.netcom.com
What
is Ravenswood Morris?
Ravenswood
Morris is Chicago's Morris team. We "dance out" (perform) at various
times and places throughout the year including:
- May Day: We dance the sun up at dawn (you heard me, dawn) every
year on the shores of Lake Michigan, at the lakefront park just east of
Morse and Sheridan. There is a public parking lot one block north, on the
north side of Lunt and the lake shore. Coming by CTA bus or train, get off
at Morse and walk east to the lake. This
is the approximate location.
- The Dark Morris: A bit of fun lunacy borrowed from the works of Terry
Pratchett. We dance the sun up at the start of summer, so shouldn't we
dance it down at summer's end? This is the "other" Morris, and
it is danced silently at dusk on October 31st, at the
same site used for May Day. (See more about the Dark Morris or the AntiMorris).
- Cultural Festivals: We have danced at several of these over the years,
including the Custer Street Faire, the Evanston Ethnic Arts Festival, the
Skokie Cultural Festival, The
Real Ale Festival, and the Chicago Park District's Unity in Our
Community festival held in Pottawattomie Park.
- Farmer's Markets: Another fun place to dance out. We have occasionally
shown up at these events in Evanston and Oak Park, especially later in the
summer.
- Special Occasions: We have appeared on the tv show "Wild
Chicago," and have danced at the Evanston First Night celebration,
private parties, the Monday night barn dance at the Abbey Pub, and various
other venues. We have also been known on occasion simply to show up at
some fine Chicagoland drinking and socializing establishment such as Tommy
Nevins or The Red Lion. We'll dance for a bit, maybe sing for a bit, and
then settle in to enjoy the fine libations available at such places.
- Morris Ales: These are gatherings of Morris dancers held throughout
the year in various locations. We attend the Midwest Morris Ale, the
location of which changes with the host team each year, and sometimes
other ales throughout the region and beyond.
Ravenswood Morris meets to practice intermittently on Thursday evenings from 7PM to 9PM. As of September 2002 we have moved to a new practice site, Hamlin Park fieldhouse (game room, second floor) 3035 North Hoyne in Chicago. The park phone number is 312-742-7785. Newcomers are always welcome, but it is best to contact us in advance and let us know to expect you. We'd love to have you join us.
We are a mixed side which dances Cotswold Morris with a few Border Morris dances thrown in for good measure (particularly during the winter months). Our primary traditions are Bampton and Adderbury, although we do the occasional dance from other traditions as well. Several of our dances are of our own devising, in a tradition we like to call "Evidence in da Trunk."
So just what is Morris dancing? If the preceding paragraph makes so little
sense to you that it might as well be written in Greek, or if you just want to
learn more about Morris, then check out Informative
Stuff and you'll soon understand all...OK, at least some.
Ready
to join in the fun?
We
dance Morris for many reasons, and one of the most important of these is that
it's fun. It's also good exercise and leads to meeting lots of great people in
the Morris community around the globe. Still, we don't want to hoard the fun,
so if this sounds like something you'd like to do then contact us and become a
Morris dancer yourself:
Send email to our Squire: Lowell Kempf
Send email to our Webmaster: Gary Plazyk
View May Day 2008 photos. For a thought provoking meditation on the meaning of May Day and Morris dancing, please check out this commentary from a member of one of our neighbor teams, Oak Apple Morris, in Madison, Wisconsin.
View May Day 2006 photos.
View some Ravenswood Morris photos.
View some of our AntiMorris 2002 photos.
View the Ravenswood Morris recruitment poster.
Ravenswood Morris is happy to be included in The Chicago Area Folk Dance
Scene, a wonderful listing of area folkdance sessions collected by the Folk
Dance Council of Chicago, and The Folk
Dance Association, a great resource for many different dance styles and
groups.
New: Think you're a true folkie? Now you can test yourself with The Folk Quiz
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This page was last updated on April 8, 2015 by Gary Plazyk.
This page was written using Notepad (it's really all you need).