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Here is a message from Patsy Paterson
our Maypole Team Leader
Through 2011, Castle Park, Evington Park, Leicester’s St. George’s Day celebrations, Donington le Heath Manor House, Blaby Farmers’ Market, Glebe Garden Centre and a Dog Show at Whetstone - not to mention several schools and their summer fetes, and WIs, Folk Dance Club evenings, one U3A dance group, and an Easter Folk Festival and a Conkers Ritual Dance Meet, both outside the county - have all benefited from one of the local District Folk Group’s Maypoles.
Among EFDSS members and friends we have a small but enthusiastic group who are happy to respond to a request for another group to experience –maybe for the first time, maybe reviving memories from a long gone childhood, – this traditional form of dancing. Originally dancing round a Maypole marked the start of Spring but now the season is extended quite a lot as it is seen as a healthy, fun way to exercise and learn teamwork, and also a pastime for all ages and abilities.
So, we can arrange one visit or a series of sessions in a school or group, sometimes culminating in a display, or we can bring a Maypole and a few adults to guide whoever volunteers to join either traditional dances - so old we have no idea of the actual origins – or our contemporary adaptations of country dances. Looking back through this series of outings, I just cannot be sure of the age range we have catered for this year but one time we stopped at the end of a dance – I suspect, from memory, a plait - and the oldest dancer admitted to being 84 and the lad beside him was four. I should add that, as one can imagine, such an age range brings its problems.
Thanks are due to the District Folk Committee and Countesthorpe Active Arts for backing our enthusiasm by buying the Maypoles, to charities, including our local paper, to Blaby’s CAFFY, for help with replacement ribbons, and to Peter and Karolyn at different times for endless patient playing, so we haven’t always used recorded music.
We hope for another busy season in 2012 –please ask!
Contact Patsy on 0116 2776259, or by clicking here to send an email
Patsy, Pat, Jenny and friends
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