Sue Dupré and Mary Zikos formed the team in 1993, after seeing Molly dancing here and there, and especially after seeing the Seven Champions on video. Our eyes were opened to the variety of molly dancing by Elaine Bradtke whose videos inspired us to go to England and see it for ourselves. Elaine's Truculent Rustics is a welcome addition to the molly dance aficionado's admittedly slim library.
Sue gave a (mostly accurate) description of Plough Monday and molly dancing, when we appeared on National Geographic's Pulse of the Planet back in 2002. They produced two segments, one on the Purpose of Plough Monday, and another on the Tradition of Plough Monday.
We started off with Inertia Reel, lifted right off the Champs' video. We added other dances as Sue wrote them, or assembled them. We stole a dance or two from Pig Dyke Molly and adapted English Country dances to Molly style. Over the years, we have adapted molly dancing to an American style; we even include a "molly-fied" square dance in our repertoire.
Mostly we dance to vocal music. Mary Zikos and Bob Dupré sing songs which Mary chooses and arranges to fit the dances. We use sea chanteys, ballads, American folk songs, and even a song that tells the story of the Jersey Devil, the most famous bit of folklore from New Jersey. We also have dances for which Ross Harris plays saxophone. Bob Dupré plays pipe-and-tabor for a dance or two.
We dress all in black, except our Molly who is in gaudy skirt and apron. We each color our faces as we wish. As a bunch of 21st Century, city-dwelling New Jerseyans, we naturally put an urban face on a rural custom.
This year we appeared at the Marlboro Morris Ale and were videoed by Dr. Anthony Barrand. Those videos can be found at The Digital Video Research Archive of Morris, Sword, and Clog Dancing at Boston University. Here they are: The Triangle Handsome Backsides The Gunfleet
We appeared at the 1998 Whittlesey Straw Bear Festival in Whittlesey, U.K. It was everything we had hoped for and more. So we returned in 2004, and we have Straw Bear pictures to prove it!
We are much indebted to Brian and Christine Kell who revived the straw bear tradition, Old Hunts Molly who allowed us to join in their Plough Monday celebration yet again.
Once again we enjoyed the good company of Pig Dyke Molly. We even wrote a song about them. It's a little number we call "Out in the Fenlands".
In 2003 we had the pleasure of dancing in the San Francisco area, as guests of the longsword side, Ring Of Cold Steel. We danced at Hyde Street Pier, Pier 39 and Twin Peaks, sampled the British fare at the Pelican Inn, basked in the warm San Francisco winter and thoroughly enjoyed ROCS hospitality.
When not flying across oceans or continents, we dance locally. We celebrate Plough Monday, wassail the apple trees at our favorite apple growers, Terhune Orchards, and dance up the sun on May Morning with Millstone River Morris, and at festivals and street celebrations along the East Coast and in Canada.
We practice on Thursday nights, in Princeton NJ.
Updated April 27, 2008