Enjoy the Maypole Dance
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Maypole Dance Memories
At Pendleton Elementary School in the 50's, we danced the Maypole. I remember like it was yesterday. Here is the photo of my class! Is that fun or what? We practiced for hours and hours with cloth streamers, weaving them perfectly. When a particular chord was played we would bow to each other, another chord was a signal to go to the pole to get our streamers. Oh such detail. I think all of this was done with piano in those days. On the big night, we used colorful crepe paper, and oh, it was so beautiful and so very exciting! And now we are history!
It is time to re-present the Maypole dance to our children! Let's keep this beautiful tradition.
Keep scrolling down to see Maypole videos and other Maypole information. If this is your first visit to Squidoo, a big hearty welcome. Have fun! And thank you for visiting!
Photo Courtesy of the Pendleton District Commission
It is time to re-present the Maypole dance to our children! Let's keep this beautiful tradition.
Keep scrolling down to see Maypole videos and other Maypole information. If this is your first visit to Squidoo, a big hearty welcome. Have fun! And thank you for visiting!
Photo Courtesy of the Pendleton District Commission
Maypole - The way I remember it
May Pole Dance Music on MP3
From Amazon - click for more information
Check out my favorite songs! I've handpicked these MP3s from Amazon. Take a listen. If you like, you can click to buy them on Amazon.
More Modern May Pole Dance
4th Graders Dance the Maypole
Have you ever danced around the Maypole?
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Bryan
Dec 12, 2011 @ 8:51 am | delete
- Maypole Dancing has had a bit of a revival for all sorts of reasons to do with a greater awareness of our own culture and the sheer enjoyment by dancers and audience alike. http://www.whatisall.com/beliefs-and-traditions/what-is-maypole-dancing.html
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joanv334
Feb 14, 2011 @ 5:20 pm | delete
- Hello, loved your lens!
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Magical One
May 3, 2010 @ 12:29 am | delete
- I just danced around the Maypole for the 5th grade's part in the Aikahi May Day celebration.
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hehe
Jan 21, 2011 @ 11:21 am | delete
- What's your elementary graduation year?
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KathyMcGraw
Apr 21, 2010 @ 12:31 pm | delete
- I sure do remember dancing around the Maypole, and I absolutely agree with teaching our kids and grandkids this fun tradition. Highlighted on my FB page in hopes more people will remember too :)
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LoKackl
Apr 20, 2010 @ 6:55 am | delete
- It's almost May - a good time to prepare a Maypole! eh?
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bethd821
Apr 4, 2010 @ 10:32 am | delete
- Never danced around the May Pole, but have heard of it. Super lens.
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Michey
Mar 27, 2010 @ 4:14 pm | delete
- I have to confess I never heard of pol dancing, but I am learning. Now you are the teacher...
Thanks
Joan
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WhitePineLane
Oct 18, 2009 @ 11:13 am | delete
- There's Maypole dancing every year at the Land of the Loon Festival near our cabin in northern Minnesota! It's great fun!
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grannysage
Sep 2, 2009 @ 8:23 pm | delete
- Ah yes, mylady, we dance the Maypole at out Beltane celebrations. You are right about it being a fertility rite, sometimes the lads and lassies get a wee bit carried away!
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Gill N.
Aug 20, 2009 @ 9:26 am | delete
- I have just been reminded of my maypole days by an Indian display of Maypole Dancing in Hyde Park at a festival. I was a fifties child in a West Riding School in Yorkshire, where we always celebrated May Day with a May Queen and country dancing, which we practised all year. It was always a special occasion, and I still have some photos.
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JaguarJulie
Aug 13, 2009 @ 2:49 pm | delete
- Do you know that I was just contemplating the maypole dance? And, wondering if they still do this?
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spirituality
May 15, 2009 @ 10:02 am | delete
- Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
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??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Apr 15, 2010 @ 4:19 pm | delete
- WTF?!?!!??!!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!!??!?
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Minda
May 11, 2009 @ 8:18 pm | in reply to stargazer00 | delete
- It is really a beautiful sight to see the Maypole done with the different colored streamers swaying the breeze. The videos just don't do it justice.
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?????
Apr 15, 2010 @ 4:10 pm | delete
- gay fuck >:p
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stargazer00
Apr 26, 2009 @ 1:40 pm | delete
- I've heard of it but never actually seen it done. Looks like a beautiful tradition. Love the photos of your class!
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CCGAL
Apr 19, 2009 @ 7:12 am | delete
- This was my first exposure outside of books to the Maypole dance. I'd seen something similar at a small renfest, but they didn't wrap the pole; the ribbons rotated with the dancers there. Way cool lens!
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MsSnow4a
Apr 2, 2009 @ 4:21 pm | delete
- Hi joan, Nice lens about Maypoles. hehe. Must be a great month. May that is lol I have not danced around a maypole that I can remember. Maybe someday :)
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Tiddledeewinks
Mar 30, 2009 @ 3:34 pm | delete
- Never done it before. Wish we had more of the "olden" days things like that. There seems to be some things of yesteryear returning now though.
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julcal
Mar 13, 2009 @ 11:13 am | delete
- Oh, I had forgotten about this tradition, thanks for the sweet reminder ! 5*
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sittonbull
Feb 23, 2009 @ 11:00 pm | delete
- "Confessions of a male teenage pole dancer" would not read nearly as exciting as it sounds! I remember it was required curriculum in grade school on May Day!
You can rest assured I would have a lot more "fun" with it today, but was not too enthused about it then!
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OhMe
Feb 23, 2009 @ 10:23 am | in reply to GrowWear | delete
- Can you believe that the one photo we found was one of Joan's 4th grade class dancing the May Pole? Amazing
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GrowWear
Feb 18, 2009 @ 4:43 pm | delete
- Such a nice remembrance, Joan. Love the 1953 photo!
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OhMe
Feb 13, 2009 @ 2:25 pm | delete
- Welcome to the South Carolina Group
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OhMe
Jan 30, 2009 @ 6:38 pm | delete
- Oh Joan, I remember it like it was yesterday, too. Our class did it to the music "Sugar in the morning, Sugar in the evening, Sugar at supertime. Be my little Sugar and love me all the time". The theme was the 48 states. lol and we were Texas and my partner, Scott Peterson, and I had to wear Lavender Gingham. I never did like that color and my partner certainly didn't. lol
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mukunda22
Jan 30, 2009 @ 5:30 pm | delete
- Isn't the May Pole dance associated with May Day?
Faved and high fived!!
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Joan4
Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:40 pm | in reply to Evelyn_Saenz | delete
- oh flowers and fiddlers!!!!!! I love it! wonderful!
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Joan4
Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:37 pm | in reply to Charlyjl | delete
- lol Charly! I got excited and did it about 4 months early. It is a traditional spring dance, first of May! I just had so much fun watching that first video and remembering it, that I just went ahead and shared! Thanks for visiting!
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Evelyn_Saenz
Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:30 pm | delete
- When we homeschooled in Boston we always danced the Maypole. We helped the kids string flowers to wear in their hair and had a few fiddlers play the music for us. We had a wonderful time with children, teens and adults all joining in.
Thank you, Joan for the memories.
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Charlyjl
Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:28 pm | delete
- We don't do the Maypole Dance here. I've certainly seen it performed though. Maybe it's because it's Winter here!
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KathrynGrayson
Jan 30, 2009 @ 4:19 pm | delete
- too neat! great lens Mom! I need to learn to Maypole Dance!
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jimmy two shoes
Apr 15, 2010 @ 4:12 pm | delete
- omfg thats your mom?!?!? wtf?!?! asshole
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- Directions to Maypole dance
- Skipping Circle Maypole Dance
To begin, participants stand shoulder to shoulder, about 2 feet (60cm) apart, facing center, in a large circle.
If you are going to dance around a Maypole have one long streamer per person attached at least head high on the pole. When dancers come into the center in part A. each person picks up a streamer and takes it back out to the edge of the circle, holding it in their right hand, (or if a loop has been added to the end of the streamer it can be slipped on the right wrist), for the rest of the dance.
If you use streamers, it is best not to move in and out of the circle till the very last part of coming into the circle a final time, then dropping the streamers and moving backward to the full circle for the closing.
Pendleton Elementary Fourth Grade Class - 1953
Photo Courtesy of the Pendleton District Commission
Maypole Dance Music
Oh I think this is the one that we used. I love the chords at the beginning! Our signals! :)
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by Joan4
Joan4
A maypole dance celebration is a delightful way to welcome spring! Whether your celebration is simple or very fancy, the most important thing is to... more »
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The Festival Book
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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.
