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More Maypoles
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More Maypoles |
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Maypole Dancing |
Country Dancing |
| The familiar ribbon and pole dance: suitable for
garden parties, fetes, fairs & festivals. Wooden Maypole, 2.7 metres tall with 16 ribbons Available for local events, instruction provided. Questions answered on maypoles (including advice on materials and construction) andrew@zylanid.demon.co.uk Dances: Barber's Pole, Platting the Pole, Spider's Web, Gypsies Tent etc. See also Maypoles of the Thames Valley (and beyond) |
Traditional English Country Dancing (Playford
Style) Many of the old round dances were done around the maypole (the tall pole of the village green, before the ribbon dance reached this country). Examples are: Sellenger's Round & Gathering Peascods. There are also dances of the " Longways for as many who will " variety, Square sets and 2,3 & 4 couple sets etc. I can teach country dances from Elizabethan to Georgian times and modern dances in the same style. andrew@zylanid.demon.co.uk More about English Country Dancing |
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Maypoles of all kinds and sizes |
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| Tall poles erected as focal points for community celebration. Sometimes just for May Day or summer festivals, but sometimes as permanent landmarks and meeting places. Round country dances, morris dances or plays about Robin Hood and his merry men were performed around them. Before the Reformation churches would erect them in churchyards and use the associated festivities to raise funds (Church Ales). The picture shows a detail from an oil painting by an unknown local artist of the maypole and dancers on Monument Green, Weybridge around 1750. (Picture courtesy of Elmbridge Museum , Weybridge) | In Kingston Museum is a copy of the 16th century stained glass window from Betley Hall, Staffordshire. As well as the maypole it shows the characters of the Kingham Game (plays and dances held around the maypole). There is: The King of May, The Queen of May, The Friar, The Peasant, The Minstrel, The Franklin, The Lover, The Disard (Jester), The Spaniard, The Fool, The Moor. | The 1st of May was Garland Day when children
carried garlands of flowers attached to poles and went from door to door singing songs and collecting money. These garlands were sometimes called "May Poles". The day often became an unofficial holiday from school so in Victorian times schools began to hold their own celebrations to discourage truancy. The Cottisford song c 1880 from May Day in Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson: A bunch of May I have brought you And at your door it stands, It is but a sprout, but it's well put about By the Lord Almighty's hands. God bless the master of this house God bless the mistress too, And all the little children That round the table go And now I've sung my short little song I must no longer stay. God bless you all, both great and small And send you a happy May Day |
The familiar ribbon and pole dance made its first
English appearence in the Pleasure Gardens of London from the mid 18th
century onwards. It is also common throughout Europe and is often
associated with the sword dance (for example in the Basque regions,
Spain, France and Italy). In Bavaria it is done with blue and white
ribbons to match the Bavarian flag. It became incorporated into
the May Day ceremonies at Whitelands Teacher Training College
(Chelsea) in late Victorian times (probably copied from nearby Cremorne
Gardens). This is why it became so popular in schools up and down the
land.
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| One school which adopted the May Day revels was Earley St. Peter's (near Reading) and from this Earley Folk Dance Group arose. Recently the group has revived the maypole dance at the annual Wokingham May Fayre . |
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Hey for Sellenger's Round ! (The Beginning of the World): The Maypole Dance of Old England. |
| People didn't have to wait until May Day to dance round the Maypole in
olden times. In "Father Hubburd's Tale" 1604: "Do but
imagine now what a sad Christmas we all kept in the country, without
either carols, wassail bowls, dancing of Sellenger's Round in moonshine
nights about Maypoles, shoeing the mare, hoodman-blind, hot cockles, or
any of our Christmas gambols, - no not so much as choosing king and queen
on Twelfth Night!" In "Bacchus' Bountie" 1593: "While they tippled,
the fiddler he fiddled, and the pots danced for joy the old hop-about
commonly called Sellengar's Round" In the play Anamnestes 1607: "by the same token the first tune the planets played: I remember Venus, the treble, ran sweet division upon Saturn, the base. The first tune they played was Sellenger's Round, in memory whereof, ever since, it hath been called The Beginning of the World." In 1594 John Davies wrote his epic poem about dancing called Orchestra, the following verse seems to be about the origin of maypole dances: Thus when at first Love had them marshalled, |
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If you would like help or advice on Maypole or English Country Dancing in the
East Berkshire area (Wokingham, Bracknell Forest, Windsor &
Maidenhead) for small clubs or local events please
contact: |
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For Schools or national events please try Tradamis (TRAditional Dance
And Music In Schools) |
