^{The Toronto Morris Men perform a traditional English stick dance in Gilbertsville on April 22. (Photo by Teresa Winchester)}

Morris Dancers Usher in Springtime
Across Otsego County

By TERESA WINCHESTER
GILBERTSVILLE

Each April, Gilbertsville’s Major’s Inn fulfills its original purpose of lodging travelers by opening its doors and welcoming the Morris dancers, a group of some 40 men and, more recently, a few women.

This year marked their 45th appearance in the village. Hailing from Binghamton, Boston, New York City, and Toronto, the itinerant dancers—who, for the most part, hold “day jobs” of various sorts, perform folk dances from 15th-century England, known as Morris dances. The dancers range in age from 13 to 80.

Gilbertsville was discovered by the Morris dancers in the mid-1970s when John Dexter, with the American Travelling Morris Men, happened to see the Major’s Inn on a tour of Central New York. He then contacted Cece Rowe, current executive director of the Major’s Inn Foundation. Thus began a long-standing relationship between the inn and the dancers, who lodge, dine, and socialize at the Major’s Inn over the weekend when not performing.

“We’re incredibly indebted to Cece for her passion to keep this amazing thing we call Morris dancing alive. She is an indispensable and integral support for us,” said Alex Naar of the Binghamton Morris Men, who served as a kind of master of ceremonies for the event, announcing dances and dancers from the different groups.

Morris dances are accompanied by music and traditionally danced by men, although in recent years, a limited number of women have begun performing with the visitors to Gilbertsville. This year, the Toronto dancers and the Bouwerie Boys of New York City each had a woman dancer joining them. Several women also played musical instruments. Among them was Jessica Murrow, with the Bouwerie Boys of New York City, who played a three-hole pipe simultaneously with a tabor (a small drum).

Morris dancing features rhythmic stepping, choreographed movement, and the manipulation of sticks, swords, and handkerchiefs. Fiddles, concertinas, drums and pipes are instruments of accompaniment.

The Tudor-style architecture of both the Major’s Inn and the Gilbert Block offers a particularly English ambience for the dancers.

“It’s our theater, our stage. It makes things a little more special. For us to dance here and get the reception that we get, it wells up tears in my eyes,” said Naar.

At 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 22, about 75 spectators gathered to watch the performance in Gilbertsville. Another Saturday appearance included a stop at Edmeston’s Pathfinder Village, an internationally renowned, open-access neighborhood for individuals with Down syndrome and developmental disabilities.

“It’s about making people smile and giving back karma,” said Naar of performing at Pathfinder.

The next two stops for the dancers were at Pioneer Park and Red Shed Brewery in Cooperstown.

“About 50 people were there (in the park), mainly tourists, some wearing baseball outfits. We were about the only thing happening at the time,” said Naar, who noted a wide range of reactions—from “What’s this?” to “This is cool.”

Sunday saw approximately 50 more people coming to Gilbertsville to watch the dancers’ final performance of this year’s Otsego County stint.

“They’ve been coming here since I was first out of high school. I’ve only missed about five of the last 43 years. It’s one of the things that makes Gilbertsville special,” said village resident June Hueth of the dancers.

“I’m here to watch that girl who dances with them,” joked Marcus Villagran, ceramic artist and owner of the Dunderberg Gallery on Marion Avenue.

“I never get enough of the Morris dancers. It’s part of the cavalcade of our spring joys. I’ve been working all night on a tile of Bob Dylan, and I wanted to come here and see these old guys jump,” continued Villagran, who said he turned 90 this year.

Several spectators referred to the yearly arrival of the Morris dancers as a “rite of spring,” an observation on which Gilbertsville resident T. Sean Herbert elaborated.

“It’s a proud tradition—the first opportunity for everybody to come out and be together…the end of winter,” he said.

Herbert’s son, Liam, had a unique impression of the event.

“It’s like living in the Shire, like Hobbiton,” he said, referring to the fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien.