Marianne Taylor
Status: Deceased
Specialty: English, Scottish, New England, international
Range: English, Scottish, New England, Portuguese, Russian, French, international
Marianne Taylor
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Marianne Patterson Taylor was a master folk dance teacher, teaching folk dance as a profession from 1955 to 2008. Her warmth and enthusiasm had inspired several generations of dancers. With "clarity and charity," she taught hundreds of school programs and residencies, Scottish and English country dance classes, and international folk dance workshops. She was featured at Stockton Folk Dance Camp (when it was the University of the Pacific Camp), Mendocino Folklore Camp, Pinewoods Camp, and workships in Alaska, Australia, Hawaii, Switzerland, and from British Columbia to Newfoundland in Canada.

Marianne was born in 1930. She graduated from Sargent College, Boston University, in 1951 with a B.S. in Physical Education and a minor in Dance. In 1957, she received her teacher's certification in Scottish Country Dance from the Royal Scottish Dance Society (RSCDS), and in 2005, she received a Scroll of Honour from the RSCDS.

With her then-husband Conny Taylor, she started running weekly international folk dance classes in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. She co-founded the Folk Arts Center of New England (FACONE) with Conny Taylor in 1975 and served as its Program Director through 2004. In 1955, she became a member of the Ralph Page Legacy Committee of the New England Folk Festial Association and a committee member for the Ralph Page Legacy Weekend. She also was an Artist in Residence for primary, middle, and high school programs through the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

Marianne said that major influences in her dance career were Ralph Page, Dick Crum, and Andor Czompo -- not just dances, but teaching and dancing techniques.

Marianne played piano for contra, Scottish, and other kinds of dance since the early 1950s and was a regular member of Tullochgorum. She played monthly with the Lamprey River Band at a contra dance in Dover, New Hampshire, and was sometimes a musician and sometimes the caller at the Deerfield, New Hampshire, Town Hall Contra Dances, which she had organized since 1991.

Her interests had included leading a small group tour in Portugal, helping to organize a second concert tour in Scotland with the Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampshire, and playing for a Scottish dance tour on a schooner in the Greek Islands.

She appeared as backup on several Scottish/Celtic music compact discs available from the Little Shop of Horas. These include

  • Celebrate Fifty Years of Dancing (Boston Hospitality, Carfuffle Ceilidh Band, Fiddlers Three, Highland Whisky, Local Hero, Pipes Awa', Sprig of Ivy, The Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampsire, Tullochgorum, The White Cockade, and additional ensembles)
  • Dances frae the North, Vol. 1, 2, 3 (ay Ladies Ceilidh Band, Commonwealth Ceilidh Band)
  • The Golden Keyboard (Celtic Marimba)
  • Muckle Carfuffle (The Carfuffle Ceilidh Band)
  • The 2005 Gala of the Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampshire

Marianne died on August 1i, 2008, after months of battling cancer. She encouraged all to "take hands four from the top" and was always one to say "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

Dances Marianne taught include 16-Step Tsamikos, 25th Reel, Alunelul, Anna's Wedding Cake, Auld Reekie Hornpipe, Bare Necessities, Bourée Droite du Pays Fort, Burns Night, Dayagim, Dinky One-Step, Dundee Whaler, Earl of Northampton, Fill the Fetters, Flights of Fancy, Flowers of Edinburg, Hal Robinson's Rant, Hamilton House, Highland Schottosche, Hora la Patru, If All the World Were Paper, Jabadao, Kamenopolska, Karapyet, Kolo Zita, Kritikos, Latvian Lass, Maggie Lauder, Maine Medley, Nao Vas a Mar, Narodno Horo, Neopolitan Tarantella, Nevestinsko Oro, Monmouth Ramble, Neda Grivne, Nonesuch, Northern Harmony, Orleans Baffled, Pant Corlan yr Wyn, Pas d'Espan, Pinewoods Reel, Potrkan Ples, Po Zelenij Trati, Robin Ddiog, Rokoko Kolo, Royal Empress Tango, Sardana, Seige of Carric, Shrewsbury Lasses, Sprig of Ivy, Stoner House, Thady You Gander, Tonho, Trekantet Slojfe, Trip to Paris, Vira da Nazaré, Vira do Sitio, Vo Sadu ly Vyogorode, Waltz, Waters of Holland, Well Hall, Yovano Yovanke, and Zaječarka.

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