Uptown on Calhoun

Most of the information you might want about this tradition is available on the Uptown-on-Calhoun web site.

From the "Uptown-on-Calhoun Abbreviated style book":

Uptown-on-Calhoun Morris, a mixed side founded in 1989, dances in a number of styles, among them one created especially for the team at its founding, by Dave and Kim Seibert. Though reportedly intended as a variation of the Bampton style, the Uptown-on-Calhoun "tradition" incorporates elements of Adderbury, Fieldtown, and other styles, along with elements unique to our group.

The style has evolved, as all living things must, but it retains its original charm and character. Dances in our "tradition" include variations of other traditions' dances, either with the same or a different melody, as well as new original dances to both old and new music. In this, we are proud to stand in the tradition of the old teams, with their oranges in blue and/or bloom; their lads bunching, lads a-bunchum, and laudnum bunches; and their diverse incarnations of Black Joke and Trunkles. As member Beth Nelson has commented, "We do it like they did in the old days - we make it up."

One of the interesting aspects of this tradition that developed over time was that usually when Uptown-on-Calhoun uses a tune or dance from another morris tradition, if the original dance was a hankie dance, it becomes a stick dance in Uptown-upon-Calhoun. If it was a hankie dance, it becomes a stick dance. Since several traditions dance "The Black Joke with sticks", while others use hankies -- but always standard Cotswold -- naturally Uptown-on-Calhoun performs it as a "hand-clapping heel-and-toe" dance.

The first dances created in this tradition were "Hamlet", "Bash the Carp", "Froggy's First Jump" (apparently now just "Froggy"), "The Twizzle Stick Dance", and "Stick Back".

External links

• Details about the tradition from Uptown-on-Calhoun's web site