|
was
the chief dance of rustic England. The ancient Britons
erected Maypoles even before >Claudius
>and
the Roman invasion (AD 43) and adorned them with flowers. There
are also the Yggdrasil Norse tree and Irish Bile Pole versions.
-
>The
May Dance until the late 1800s was popular in the rural districts
of England where it achieved it's finishing non- pagan touches,
while in many places throughout the world it was still widely
danced. Other countries of Europe also had their dances for celebrating
the first of May. In Switzerland
these festivals were conducted with great solemnity in the morning,
a dramatic representation was given in the afternoon, while the
evening time was given up to music and dancing. A dance, however,
of which there are numerous records, both in the books of well-known
writers, and the drawings on vases and friezes, was the Chain
Dance, performed by a band of young men and girls placed
alternately in a ring, and with hands clasped. They then danced
round, at the same tithe twisting in and out, much in the manner
of the English Maypole Dance.
->The
May Dance of ancient origin, as it dates back to the dancing at
the "Feast of Flora." Flora
was the goddess of flowers, and festivals in her honor were held
the last of April and the first of May (as in Robin Hoods Day).
>Originally,
In celebrating the rites of Spring,
the girls entering womanhood would be gathered up and allowed
to participate in the making of the Maypole and its dances. Each
Village or town would get a ribbon with a unique pattern which
were simple in earlier time to more elaborate designs and fabrics
with a May Blossom placed atop the pole. During the dance the
younger girls were on the inside and the older on the outer rim.
The older girls would form some of the prettiest rings around
the Maypole and if the ribbon did not break would bring great
luck upon the village.
->
When the Festival came into its prime, all the young men and maidens
of the country round were wont to rise at midnight and tie them
to the woods, and returning before the sun was up, laden and bedecked
with flowers, evergreen, and boughs, festooned their persons with
the spoil. After sun rise they join the procession led by >Jack
O' the Green, who was fantastically arrayed with flowers
and ribbons, and learning a red covered with flowers and streamers
of every hue, and furnished near the top with hoops twined with
flowers and evergreen, and crossing each other vertically. Furnished
near the top with hoops twined with flowers and evergreen, and
crossing each other vertically.
->
After this personification came the Morris
Dancers, six maids and as many swains linked hand in hand
and fancifully arrayed in ribbons of red and blue, with bells
on their ankles and literally covered with flowers. Then came
the Maypole Dancers with hands joined, two and two. After these
walked the tall and graceful maid Marion, escorted by Friar Tuck,
she decorated gaily from head to foot with flowers, and he grotesquely
attired in a monkish habit, and like the rest, bedecked with flowers.
Then followed six pairs of Morris Dancers again, and immediately
after them marched the master of ceremonies, >Robin
Hood (1160-1247) and by his side the >Queen
of May, the fairest maiden of the country side, as yet
uncrowned, but attended by six young maids all dressed in white
and covered with garlands. (There were many other customs connected
with Mayday, and the whole affair was conducted with much mock
ceremony; two girls were chosen by vote to preside over the festivities,
one being called Lady Flora, queen of the flowers, and the other
Lady May, but in later times only one sovereign was elected, the
Queen of the May.)
->
Then again came the rest of the Maypole Dancers, who closed the
procession, which was preceded by a band of music. After marching
through the principal streets in the village, they gathered at
the Maypole, and spent the remainder of the day in dancing and
various games around it. Puritan William
Bradford (a New Englander) wrote about his dislikes
(biblical reasoning) of the Maypole as done to "Wanton
Ditties" and the pole being "a stynching Idol",
he also mentions the worse practice of the "Sundry rimes
and verses" associated with this idolistic dance.
->
The Maypole was from twelve to sixty feet in height, usually made
from a tree and is bestudded with pins to the top, which are hung
with garlands and streamers. On the Northwest side of a ring formed
by a rope stretched around about twenty feet from the base of
the pole, they now proceed to crown the >May-Queen,
who is seated on a throne raised on a platform, on each side of
which, seated on stools, are her pages and attendants. Then begins
the May-Queen's reign. She awards the prizes to the most graceful
dancers and to those who excel in the other games, and has absolute
power to reward or punish whomsoever she pleases. The May-Queen
may also, if she choose, resign her throne for a time to maid
Marion, and take part in the dance. The Master of the Ceremonies,
Robin Hood, calm the changes, to suit his fancy, and we subjoin
some of those most in favor.
->
India's Mysore - At the center of
the hall ceiling is fixed a ring from which eight cords hang,
each one of a different color. Four small girls and boys hold
the ends of these cords. The music begins and the eight children
start a dance, the movements of which are ruled so that the young
performers twist the cords together. After they have turned in
this manner, the orchestra plays another air and the twist is
unwound; it is reformed and again unwound. The play of colors
which unite and separate, as if by enchantment, produces the most
pleasing effects. The color of the clothing of each child is the
same as that of the cord which it holds. This is very pretty;
isolated from each other at the moment when the cords are separated,
they cross, mingle and blend to form the brilliant twist under
which they appear in a group, combining all the colors. (see
Oriental).
- In Bavaria
dating back to the sixteenth century have a different tradition
with the Maypoles (Maibaum) are decorated with pictures
of the businesses and their crafts in the villages. One tradition
is to have the Maypole stolen by one group and prevented by another.
The dancing would take place in front of the Inns or Gasthäuser
during this time.
->
In England the festival was generally
known as Maying (usually held in June because of the weather).
The youth of both sexes start early in the day to gather flowers,
which they throw in front of the houses, and with which they decorate
the Maypoles. Then a number of ribbons, also decorated with flowers,
are attached to the tops of the poles, and the dancers taking
hold of the ends dance around till the ribbons are woven round
the poles in the form of a braid. The reverse movements are then
performed for unwinding them. A pleasing feature of these festivities
is that on May morning the fairest or most popular of the girls
is chosen May Queen, and crowned with a garland. Her word is law
for the day, and all vie with each other in doing her homage.
The Moors and Shakers also used a
Maypole dance.
->
In the >Moresca or Mooris of the 15th
century talks of the maypole:
When Robin Hood was the foremost figure of the dance in Elizabethan
times (1600s), the birth of spring on May day would send the folk
of England into the woods to collect flowers, boughs and blossoms
and wait for the sun to rise, a symbol of the full opened year.
They would return home in the sunlight, flower-laden, dancing
and capering around an ox drawn cart which bore the May Pole,
thus the Masque of Morris dance which Robin Hood danced with Marian.
->
The Modern Maypole (1900s) dance is said to have been created
by John Tiller
(Tiller Girls / Rockettes fame). However, some of the earliest
writings talk of the Maypole dance all the way back to 1400's,
so maybe he just choreographed a popular version. The Maypole
dance today is considered a Children's dance, performed at schools,
playgrounds and fairs for children with much rehearsal and choreography.
Both Boys (who dance clockwise) and Girls (who dance
C. Clockwise) participate today (fashioned after the Irish
Bile Pole version).
|
