Performing in the 2016 Green Show on Friday, July 8 and Sunday, July 10
This is their third season at the OSF Green Show.
Renegade Rose is a non-traditional English Morris Dance troupe
Renegade Rose Morris, founded October 2002, is the only morris in Oregon that is for both men and women, is multigenerational, and is welcoming dancers of all ages.
Our dances are from the villages of Adderbury, Litchfield, Bampton, and Fieldtown in England's Cotswolds, led by music on accordion, concertina, mandolins, and whistle. We also perform contemporary Morris dances – dances that have been recently written, usually in the style of a particular village tradition.
We have danced regularly for the Seattle FolkLife, Portland Pagan Community Pagan Faire, Pirate Festival, Portland Christmas Revels, various farmer’s markets, and other street festivals.
In 2015, we had the privilege of dancing at the Mitcheldean Fete and Folk Festival, as well as many pubs in England. We also danced as part of the entertainment for the opening of the Orange Line, the newest train in Portland.
Our musicians include Elizabeth Christina, a long-time professional musician and member of Mistral.
Morris is a particular English tradition, and we consider ourselves connected to the traditional Anglo dance/song community. We also consider ourselves a street dance/theatre group, connecting contemporary audiences to an ages-old tradition, to keep it fresh and engaging. We prefer the approach of being “mingled” with our audience rather than “staged”. Morris dance grew out of English village traditions where local residents would costume up in kit and bells and perform on the village green. Dancers and musicians were at the same time a part of the community and apart from it. It’s why we invite audience members – including and especially children – to join in with simple choruses and dance moves.
We live in a time where song and dance is often perceived as something other people – performers – do rather than something that everyone can do. Folk dance is even derided in some circles as being amateurish or silly. Yet the human need to create art, to dance, to sing, is in us since birth. Through Morris dance, we bring people in contact with the possibility to make music, to move in rhythm, to engage the world in a joyous expression.
Renegade Rose Morris on Community:
We are interested in cross-fertilizations of communities and traditions. Although some people consider Morris dance as something middle-aged English white guys do, we have begun to explore both the antecedents of Morris in Spanish “baston” dances and stick dances of other cultural traditions. Additionally, younger dancers developing dances that intersect tradition with new dance forms. We’re excited to interact with them and move the dance traditions forward by engaging younger dancers and new dances ourselves.
Traditional dances cement our relationship to the past, but they must also have a future, and that’s what we’re about – linking traditions to future generations.
www.renegaderose.net