VIDEOS

Bloomington Quarry Morris Dancers

Bloomington, Indiana

Morris 2010

Morris dancing is a traditional village festival dance from England. Bloomington Quarry Morris performs dances from the Cotswold area of England, as well as some Midwest American dances and a few from even stranger parts. 

What's Going On Now?

Good question. Spring 2010 is almost bursting out around us right now, and Mayday will be here before we know it!
  • Saturday, April 17, 2010, We will be performing at the Bloomington Community Farmer's Market at 9:00 AM. Now even more reason to get there before the rush!

  • Saturday, May 1, 2010, Mayday! Check us out at dawn at the Courthouse, downtown Bloomington: 6:45 AM Come down and help us wake up the Earth with dancing, singing, and magical poppyseed cake of rebirth and fertility!
    If you sleep in, stop by the Farmer's Market at 12:00 noon for some more dancing. I promise the Earth will still need waking up. Bring the kids to dance the Maypole, and pick up some great produce while you're here.

  • Saturday, May 22, 2010, The Harmony Extravaganza! We'll be dancing at 1:00 in the afternoon, come out to Harmony School for a great time.


What Happened Already?


  • Since January, Bloomington Quarry Morris has been performing at the Bloomington Contra Dance, over at Harmony School here and there. Maybe you saw us there, and wanted to find out about dancing yourself? Email us!
  • The Bloomington Quarry Morris Dancers wound up the 2009 outdoor dancing season as we do every year with live music and dance at the Bloomington Community Farmer's Market last October. Don't worry, we'll be back to dance and carouse among the produce this year too.
  • Did you see us downtown last fall? Continuing another BQM tradition, our sister Morris team, Ann Arbor Morris came and we danced at various locations around town during the Lotus Festival. 
  • Our oldest, most venerable and certainly most exhaustingly fertile Bloomington tradition is to dance under the famous Fish at dawn on Mayday (May 1st) on the Monroe County Courthouse lawn. They haven't stopped us yet! We then tour several local schools during the morning, and dance again at the Courthouse at noon, including a maypole dance for participation by young and old.
  • Besides performing at dawn on Mayday at the Courthouse for over 25 years, Bloomington Quarry Morris has also danced at the Shipshewana May festival and ethnic and renaissance festivals in Terre Haute, Indianapolis and South Bend. From January through May 2009 we danced four times at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis during the Legos Medieval Castles exhibit. What a blast, and we got to play with legos too!


Mayday 2010 is coming up! Join us!

The BQM team is always on the lookout for new enthusiastic dancers and musicians. We usually schedule a workshop every year (See above, January 31!), but we can work in new people anytime. We practice at Harmony School on Sundays at 4PM, and all are welcome to come and watch, or join in the fun. Please call or email a day or two ahead of time to make sure we'll be practicing where and when you expect. See the videos and photos to the left to get an idea of our style. Email morris@bloomington.in.us for more information, or call (812)333-2851.

More about Morris and more...

More information on morris dancing is available from the combined website of the British Morris organizations, at http://www.morrisdancing.org/.

See also Jeff Biggler's Home Pages of Morris and Sword Sides for the most complete directory of morris pages around the world.

We practice weekly (Sundays 4-6) during the season at Harmony School. Our community is incredibly fortunate to have this resource.

For more old time dance in Bloomington, see the web site of the Bloomington Old Time Music and Dance Group.

For early music, see the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

For world music, Bloomington is home to the fabulous Lotus Festival