English Morris Dance Group to perform in Seneca Falls

The exciting sights and sounds of traditional English Morris Dancing will be on display in the Finger Lakes region during late July and early August as the American Travelling Morrice presents a week-long series of shows in communities throughout the area, including several free public performances in and around Seneca Falls on Monday, July 28. Performance times are 3:00 pm at Cayuga State Park, 4:00 pm at the corner of Falls Street and Mynderse Street in Seneca Falls and 5:00 pm at the Sequestered Tavern on Cowing Street in Seneca Falls. We will also be in Seneca Falls on Saturday, August 2. These Performance times will be 10:00 am at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and at 6:00pm at the Sequestered Tavern on Cowing Street.A full schedule of the group’s week of dancing can be found americantravellingmorrice.org.The ATM is an international ensemble of dancers that has come together each summer since 1976 to offer authentic presentations of the Ritual Dances of the English Cotswolds in free public performances in communities throughout the United States and England. Originally composed of men from local morris teams in Binghamton and Boston, the ATM has grown to include dancers from across the United States, Canada and England. While most of these men dance regularly with teams in their home towns, they come together for one week each year to form the American Travelling Morrice.Morris dancing is an old English country tradition. Its origins are lost in the mists of forgotten time, but pictorial and written references date back to the 15th century. In his day, Shakespeare cherished the Morris as an ancient custom and he made allusions to it in many of his plays. The dances you will see performed, using sticks or handkerchiefs, have their origins in Cotswold villages. Many villages such as Longborough, Bampton, Bledington, Oddington and Sherborne had their own tradition and if you watch carefully, you may be able to spot the differences.