Broom, Stave, Maypole and More!

Broom Dancing – Midlands and Southern England

Broom dancing does not have any special costume, it was either performed in morris costume as a solo jig or in everyday clothing. There are records of farm worker’s broom dancing in a barn on a wet afternoon and people dancing as an endurance competition to see who could last the longest. In Devon it was performed at weddings into the 1930s by men and women apparently in their Sunday best clothes. It was a matter of female pride that the women could do the dance as well as or better than the men, even in their long skirts. Today it is often performed as a jig (solo dance) by morris dancers wearing their team costume – although they normally take off the bells.

Flag and Bone – Yorkshire

The Flag and Bone Gang have revived a dance tradition from Yorkshire. This was another Plough Monday dance performed in January when there was not much work for people to do on the farms. This dance was revived in the 1990s basing their choreography on historical references to men dancing in lines holding flags or clicking bones. The new team created a costume based partly on an old picture of the ‘fool plough’ from which they decided to attach strips of fabric to their legs. An element of disguise is created through a thin black fabric veil which is attached to wide brimmed hats. The veil gives the performances quite a spooky feel.

Maypole Dancing – Nationwide

The first of May was a national day of celebration, second only to Christmas in general popularity. Maypoles are an old custom which date back to the Middle Ages. Originally the maypole was brightly painted, covered in flowers and very, very high (up to 27 metres!). It was the centre piece for normal social dancing and as such it would have been done in normal, Sunday best clothing. Maypole dancing was revived in the Victorian period. Children rather than adults did the dancing and wore pastel or white clothes decorated with flowers. White clothing is now often associated with this style of dance. These costumes probably emphasised innocence, purity and cleanliness which were ideas valued by Victorian society. Sometimes themed picturesque costumes were made. If the celebrations had a May Queen then the dancers might be dressed as her followers. Today maypole dancing is often performed by dancers wearing white or else a specially made historic costume.

Stave Dancing – South West

Staves are a stick with an ornamental end. The end of the stave normally had a symbol. Stave dancing comes from the friendly societies. The friendly societies acted as an early type of benefits system. Members would pay an annual amount and then if they were unemployed or ill the society would give them some money to support them. Every year the clubs would have an annual procession and it would normally be a great event for the local area. The members each had a stave and would normally have a friendly society ribbon (which was often blue) attached to their smartest clothes. The club procession often involved dancing and this was sometimes done with staves. A number of teams now do stave dancing, either wearing historical costume or else a modern one designed to look attractive and practical for dancing in.

Social Dance – Nationwide

English social dance is also known as: Barn dance, country dance and ceilidh dance. Social dances were participatory dancers done by ordinary people. People danced in their homes, in their local meeting place such as a village hall, or outside in the streets. It was done either as a special activity with a hired band where people would dress up and wear their Sunday best clothes, perhaps in the hope of catching the eye of someone they liked, or the dance was a spontaneous event with someone singing the tune if there were no musicians.

Today there are a couple of teams which ‘display’ social dancing, the women often wear white blouses with bright circle skirts a style which was popular in the 1950s and which flares out into a large circle. The men often have a team waistcoat. However today most people do social dancing in normal clothes, perhaps with sensible shoes or lightweight summer clothes because the dances can be very energetic. Some women and increasingly men also take the opportunity to wear long floaty skirts or dresses for dancing, but there are no rules, anything goes.

Step Dancing – East Anglia

Southern step dancing was a percussive form of dance like clog. It was done in people’s homes, in the pub and on the street for fun. Some more serious dancers used to travel great distances to dance if they knew that a musician was going to be at a certain pub. Today dancers have special shoes which are comfortable for dancing in or make a good noise when tapped on the floor. Sometimes the dancers make the most of Blakey’s segs which are a sole and heel protector made of metal. Blakey’s can be attached to the bottom of the shoe, the part which gets the most amount of wear. This makes the shoe harder to wear through and longer lasting. Attached to a shoe Blakey’s make a distinct clicky sound which is favoured by some step dancers. In competitions today dancers wear normal clothing, although sometimes there is a nod towards the past with men wearing braces and flat caps. Today dancers often experiment with different shoe types and modern tap shoes are sometimes worn.

Key words

Blakey’s segs, braces, choreography, circle skirts, competition, custom, disguise, friendly society, jig, normal/normally, participatory, Plough Monday, ribbon, stave/s, Sunday best, step-dancing, sole, symbol, themed, veil, waistcoat.

Beginners’ Guides:
English Folk Costume