Red Herring Morris Dancers are one of New England's oldest Border Morris dance teams.
Morris is a western European style of traditional dance, that was considered ancient when Shakespeare was in diapers! In fact, he wrote about it in several of his plays. There are several styles of the Morris, including Cotswold, Molly, Longsword, and many others. Red Herring performs in the Border tradition, which stems from the border of England and Wales.
The Morris is traditionally danced for agricultural events such as plantings and harvests. You will find us at farmers markets, CSA's, schools, and community fairs & events, as well as weddings.
We have lots of video online. Book us for your event!
Red Herring Morris dancers came to my daughters 2nd birthday which was a princess tea party with 100 people and they were incredible! They danced to different songs, brought a 10 foot maypole to dance with and even had the audience participate in traditional dances as well as The maypole! Everyone at the party from 2 to 87 was so intrigued by them and loved watching and of course being able to participate too! They came in costume and even had face paint! They were also so nice to talk too. There were 5 Dancers and 3 musicians. They were incredibly entertaining and we’d highly recommend having them at your event!
Photos from this event
You never forget the first time you see Morris dancing. It is fascinating, mystifying, and unlike anything else you have ever seen. We were delighted to see the open-mouth stares and bewildered faces of the crowd at PeopleFest when Red Herring Morris took the stage.
Red Herring has great dancers. They are colorful, and they showed up in plenty of time, totally prepared. They did a great job of engaging the crowd by getting people to dance with them. I wish we had given them more time.
Price Range: $350 & up, travel if >30 mi (501c3 discount 50%)
Gig Length: 30 - 300 minutes
Languages: English
Insurance: $500,000 - Blanket policy - we can add you to a rider.
Unions: Not Union
Red Herring dancers will perform traditional and contemporary Morris dances, accompanied by live music for your entertainment. We also have a few audience participatory dances that we can bring out if desired. A typical performance will last from 45 minutes to an hour.
Morris dance is a performance dance wherein each group wears a particular kit, or costume, to identify themselves as from a specific team. Many of the dances are traditional and date back centuries, while others have been written as recently as a few weeks ago.
Red Herring dances with attitude! Most of our dances are designed to look "Wild", but each dancer is in complete control. Each dance takes months of practice to perfect, except for the few which we use as "Audience participation" dances, which are used especially in the spring for children.
A typical performance would include 45 minutes to 1 hour of dancing and live music consisting of traditional instruments such as fiddle, accordion, recorder, etc.
Red Herring is also the adult team that is associated with Banbury Cross Morris and Sword, the oldest children's Morris dance team in the USA! There are price discounts when booking both teams for one event.
Rates for booking Red Herring Morris and Banbury Cross Morris and Sword, depend greatly upon the time of year. Spring is by far our busiest times, and performances come at a premium from April 1 through June 30. Bookings the rest of the year as on an "As available" basis and have a $100 discount off the total fee.
Finally, Red Herring Morris has connections to the entire North American Morris Dance community and can put together any size Morris Dance event. In past years, we have put together Morris Dance events in the Greater Boston area with over a dozen Morris Dance teams from as far away as London, Toronto, and Cornwall!
We will need an area about 12'x20' at a minimum. Wooden flooring is preferred, but we have danced on any flat surface from concrete to grass.
| August 25, 2018 • 12:00pm - 1:30pm | Children's Birthday Party |
Traditional and contemporary dances in the Border Morris tradition
The Morris is an ancient traditional dance style that has its origins in the Brittish Isles.
Audience!
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