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An Assortment of Dances

These illustrations are all from the collection in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, which God preserve. ‘The Dancing School’ puts one in mind of a Thursday night knees-up at Cecil Sharp House.

Country dancing on May Day at Ickwell Green, Bedfordshire, 1986 (Ickwell May Day is actually on May Bank Holiday)

Women in ‘traditional’ dress, dance outside Salisbury Cathedral, as part of the elaborate rituals on Oak Apple Day (or Grovely Day), Great Wishford, Wiltshire, 1967 (Celebrates ancient rights to gather ‘snappinge wood’ from Grovely Wood)

Hobby Horse Dance, published in ‘Illustrations of Shakespeare’ by Francis Douce, 1839

Frontispiece for ‘A Companion to the Ball Room’ by Thomas Wilson, London 1816

‘The Honest Sailor and a Deluding Landlady’, illustration from ‘Real Sailor Songs, collected and edited by John Ashton’, London 1891

‘The Sailor’s Return’, illustration from ‘Real Sailor Songs, collected and edited by John Ashton’, London 1891

‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’, from Walter Crane’s Picture Book, published by Frederick Warne in London, 1900 (The book was for children, mainly nursery rhymes. Crane was prominent in the Arts & Crafts Movement)

‘The Midgley-Tomlinsons, in order to be in the movement, hurriedly decide among their house party to hold Morris dances at a ball at their little place in the country’ (Punch cartoon by CA Shepperson, 1912. Did Cecil Sharp know about this?)

‘All join the Merry Gallopade’

‘Uomo e Donna del Paese di Roccaspinalveta’ from Provincia di Chieti

An engraving of the Betley Window. The original window in the V&A Museum was made around 1620 (several copies exist) and it is revered in Morris dancing circles as one of the earliest depictions of the dance and ‘characters’ such as the Fool, Hobby Horse,

The Morris Dancers at Lichfield ‘Greenhill Bower’ on Whit Monday 1850 (Now on Spring Bank Holiday)

‘The Dancing School’ - a satirical mid-nineteenth century print

‘An Allemand’, by Isaac Cruikshank, April 1797

‘Fairies’ (From ‘Christmas Entertainments by Field & Ther, 1740)

Tango al fresco, Regents Park, London

Young competitors in the Junior Championships (under 16) Ballroom Dancing Competition, Earls Court, London

Line Dancing Festival, Coalisland, Co Tyrone

Street entertainers on the Royal Mile during the Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland

Japanese dance troupe taking part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2007