{"id":119,"date":"2023-05-12T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/?page_id=119"},"modified":"2024-04-21T19:33:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T19:33:08","slug":"how-i-got-into-maypole","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/how-i-got-into-maypole\/","title":{"rendered":"How I got into maypole"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m Judith Proctor, and I got into maypole dancing quite by accident. I was visiting the school where my morris team practiced (back then, we were still paying by cheque) and they mentioned that they&#8217;d found an old maypole in a cupboard.<br>Did I know anything about maypole dancing?<br>I said &#8216;Yes&#8217; by reflex, and then went and booked myself onto a one day course to learn how to teach maypole&#8230;<br>Not long after that, I was teaching an entire class of infants how to maypole dance. It was interesting, but a bit tricky, as the pole had twelve ribbons and there were 20+ children&#8230;<br>After several weeks, of only teaching half the class at a go (and having the other half dance round a chair trying to imagine it was a maypole), I bit the bullet and bought my own maypole with 24 ribbons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The picture above is of the school&#8217;s maypole &#8211; as you can see, it needed adults to hold two ribbons for some dances, as the top rotated freely and could not be locked in position&#8230;. (That&#8217;s me, Judith, with the tatter jacket and drum)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-304\" srcset=\"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/DSCF0786-624x468.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At that time, I thought maypole was a purely English tradition.  Little did I know how wrong I was&#8230;<br><br>At that time, I was a member of the Quayside Cloggies morris team (in addition to Anonymous Morris who wear the tatter jackets Pam and I are wearing in the school photo).  Cloggies, who were based in Poole (Dorset, England) were invited to dance in Cherborg. What we didn&#8217;t know was that a German dance group had also been invited.  I cannot, alas, remember their name, but in addition to whatever German folk dances they performed, they also brought a portable &#8216;maypole&#8217;, to perform the Bandertanz waltz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/TYU_WKS3w4OVVBRSEguvzDoiATnWAQgnN-c6HxfMM1JcnhltPstzEhBIt57gp1w3YpnEiPiT1f-NT19-jsofN44lBTCCncIttu7TfyIUJSovvChzzD4HmwOZgsy5k8IzOz6X7d9zSg19Hcu2Qj5jQSoa-E6Ve5Lqdqi4cramFkuR6tr1WjpoakEDbpchOBjD7LJ46d6jU8nTmKhbxh-_8_EaVY0J0pVF5pJAcAIy6EYOkTotjhJcGac8hk4ElnfOKAhltSIbNu0hV04Jtds3YTWl7vaxHe4-BWXLjgkkEghP5WDyCjqTK7UpT3yVPANW1TO0NgyiKKexQIklA7mGP5EYVGrB17dxwcfVLne-WOz0aezE9BG0GtD54y1qm0gRGWwywOg-ANEAYxgOomaXT6JYjp5iTX2fYAI1Fw-Egzzg0iFwecstSZPNf9UP4azFp8-9D3jUSV7p8mwvSfE6nKec9xR7JpoZipDGZCiYMzSgV_dnfXpivur0B6MibzrP0V81e8FtF1WNPq9g5_-Wlkmi59az-7EI6K7ID-TszF3Pg1luCS-BhYyeWw6WGptovCie4Jl4JymalpNGcOinRF4zy046GpJt506dyLtpKeQC-QC4mBiF5HzGGnqpktAydoUkQnFXeIUcq9p0BXJe2d0mi1iEFaZnI1ZNwy_zsmns06IsZpx8kmEz785xLeV_5XMWEwT4ceRXnnmp2Do2fHWa2LThjC58V2j_Os7wwwFQd6oWldbITCr1vUyQXIdxenaywSQf0Smpk0EPOuXjpxPaF6PgVqojfRQfjOAniOgeczQbfZaiM9SxjdYD1P-AB2FHLznwFPJOW4I4tIes03IvxDxY6hUpXQ4w3prNv8tAZm0ktQPb976NXLphDoFYpVLGuuaIowOPgWHM0ArSjrF4DMWWF6GMNnzKSHtMZIr8Cg=w438-h329-s-no?authuser=0\" alt=\"\" style=\"width:843px;height:auto\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It was my first introduction to non-English ribbon dances, and I was fascinated.<br>Not long after that, my cousin Patsy mentioned in her Christmas letter that she had joined a Spanish maypole team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was hooked!<br>I started researching, and started finding ribbon dances in all kinds of unexpected places.<br><br>Needless to say, I also teach some of these dances when I get the opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m Judith Proctor, and I got into maypole dancing quite by accident. I was visiting the school where my morris team practiced (back then, we were still paying by cheque) and they mentioned that they&#8217;d found an old maypole in a cupboard.Did I know anything about maypole dancing?I said &#8216;Yes&#8217; by reflex, and then went [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maypoleroundtheworld.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}