Dancing On & Dancing Off

DANCING ON

     The dancers line up ‘off stage’ and dance on to circle the maypole in a clockwise direction. They stop when the music stops and face in.          

     To take ribbons, the left hand dancer in each couple walks towards the pole, takes the two ribbons for them and their partner, turns around and walks back and passes the appropriate ribbon to their partner

DANCING OFF METHOD ONE             All dance clockwise in a circle round the maypole holding ribbons in hand nearest the pole.         At the same time, all release the ribbons, continue to circle clockwise and then lead off.   METHOD TWO     Dancers move towards the pole with ribbon in their hand. All move slowly backwards allowing the ribbon to unwind until they are at the full extent of the ribbon     They pull the ribbon tight between finger and thumb. Then at the same time, all let go so that the ribbons ‘fly’ towards the pole     All face out and bow, turn right to face clockwise, then dance round and lead off.

one way of storing ribbons on a maypole during display