The Dancing Marleys
American Wooden Shoe Dancers
Anna Mae Marley of Rockville, CT, danced on a vaudeville-style tour of
western U. S. states with Major Bowes Unit #1 from June to December, 1936.
She and her brother, Jim, had won the Major Bowes "Chase and Sanborn
Amateur Hour" which was nationally broadcast on radio on June 21st,
1936.
(left) Jim and Anna Marley with Major Bowes, 1936; (right) William
and Jim Marley, ca. 1916; (Bottom) Anna dancing at one of her school's annual
shows
On the Major Bowes show, they had performed a "Straight Jig,"
and a "Clog" on matching marble 16" square pedestals, 15"
high," and followed that with a "Buck and Wing" on the floor.
They travelled as "The Dancing Marleys," a name which had been
used when they danced in 1923 as part of a family vaudeville act. Their
father, William Marley, Jim, and the three youngest girls (Matty, Anna,
and Gert) danced, oldest sone, Bill, the Connecticut banjo champion, and
mother, Mary Donovan Marley, played banjo and piano.Bill Marley had learned
to dance in the 1890's in Taunton, MA, as part of the team, Farley and Marley
with a local barber, "Professor" William Farley.
After World War II, Anna opened the Anna Marley School of Dance and taught
hundreds of children over a forty year period until she retired in 1983.
In her younger years, she would dance in the school's annual shows. often
with her cousin, Bobby Milanese (above left), who now runs a dance school
in New Jersey. She also choreographed and played for all of the routines
danced by the children (above, right).
In 1982 and 1983, 8 of her nieces and great-nieces danced the Marley
Buck-and-Wing and The Marley Irish Jig in the annual show (shown, left,
dancing the Irish Jig and, right, posing with Anna.)
Dr. Tony Barrand of Boston University and graduate student, Kathryn
"Kari" Smith have been collecting routines from Ms. Marley since
January, 1989. Several routines have been prepared for workshops in the
U.S. and England.In addition, the project is accumulating a collection of
19th century teaching pamphlets of clog dance routines and these will be
reprinted. The first, Clog and Jig Dancing Without a Master: The Clifford
(1864), Buckley (1869), and James (1873) Manuals, includes commentary
on the rhythms of "Jig" and "Clog" and illustrations
from the original pamphlets (Northern
Harmony Publishing Company, 1994)
A nine member troupe under the name of "The New Dancing Marleys"
performed all ten of the routines collected from Anna Marley at the 17th
Reading (England) Traditional Step Dance Festival in October, 1995.
The New Dancing Marleys doing the "Softshoe" at the Reading
Cloggies Festival, October, 1995
Copies of published routines and other commentary can be obtained from:
Home:
109 Washington Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301-3355
(802) 254-8684
FAX: (802) 257-4369
e-mail: barrand@sover.net
Office:
Dr. Tony Barrand
University Professors Program
745 Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215
(617) 353-4020
FAX (617) 353-5084
e-mail: csharp@bu.edu