Folk Dance Introduction 3
English folk dance is colourful, exhilarating, exciting and diverse! Although distinctive, it has surprising similarities to traditional dances from across the British Isles, Europe, and other parts of the world.
For example, stick dances that share visible similarities to morris dancing can be found as far afield as the Basque country and Kerala in Southern India. Appalachian clogging combines British roots with Native American and African influences: it evolved in the Southern Appalachian Mountains of the USA, and is now a popular performance dance form in England.
Since the early 1900s, dances that originated in one place have been taken up by folk dancers in different regions and are now danced all over the country and increasingly in other parts of the world.
May Day in Padstow (date unknown)
Photo: Doc Rowe
