And then it was time for BB’s first US trip. Each year one side from the UK is invited to join around 16 high quality teams from the USA and Canada at the long established Marlboro Ale, held over the Whit holiday weekend, and based at Marlboro College, Vermont. This year 9 BB dancers, plus Sue, Bob and some partners/families made the trip, to be greeted by typical English Bank Holiday weekend weather – “Occasionally it’s wet here at this time of year” they said to us on arrival, “and occasionally it’s cold, but this is the first year it’s been both”. Hmmm. Undeterred however by a bit of cold and damp, we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend – not dissimilar to an English morris weekend but with a few key differences. Firstly, the Ale is a strictly invitation only event and the dancing standards were extremely high. Secondly, every now and again when all the teams are together, they just love to break into massed dances. There was even a massed dance workshop on the Friday evening of arrival – unfortunately missed by most of BB who had retired jetlagged long before the first massed foot up. Thirdly, there were plenty of young people around for the weekend, and while most teams danced Cotswold there was an all teenage group performing Manx dances to an exceptional standard.
Dancing on the Saturday was in nearby Brattleboro, culminating in a massed stand in the town centre, and followed in the evening by contra dancing back at the college. On Sunday the teams split up for tours of 3 or 4 teams on yellow school buses, visiting various local towns and villages, before another final massed stand at Newfane – a small picture postcard American village with white clapperboard buildings and a verdant village green. The final part of the weekend was the Sunday evening ‘Feast’ – an elaborate meal after which teams are invited to do party pieces. Fortunately nowadays BB have a good stock of these and got a great reception for our Men in Black / Gangnam spot – amongst the many things Americans do well is make incredibly enthusiastic audiences! We were also awarded our trophy for somehow narrowly beating Marlboro Morris in their annual ‘Aunt Sally’ challenge against the visiting UK team (thanks to Jerry, Alun, and our ringer Bob). And equally bizarrely some of us found ourselves signing autographs for our very brief Downton Abbey appearance, a major talking point with a few diehard American fans.
After the Ale weekend, some of BB were generously hosted by local dancers in nearby Amherst for another couple of days before dancing out on the Tuesday evening with local side, Juggler Meadow. After that everyone went their own ways round New England and further – none quite as far as Sue who along with partner Bob proceeded to cover a further 7500 miles by road, taking in Yellowstone Park and the Grand Canyon!
Our overall impressions of the weekend were highly favourable. The American teams, apart from being great hosts, took their morris very seriously – high standard of dancing, close attention to detail, great enthusiasm, and very supportive of each other and their English guests. Very occasionally we found them almost too perfect and wished one or two could have toned down the deadly accuracy and toned up the entertainment value of their dances to make a better connection with their audiences. But that’s to quibble – overall great standards, great fun, great hosts, and set in a beautiful part of America.
