Community

Moveable Feet’s Maypole Dance celebrates spring

Mary Foust and a little girl named Sophia pass under an arch of boughs created by Dory Bennett (left) and a little girl named Sophia while dancing ”The Festival Processional” during Moveable Feet’s annual Maypole Dance. GINI DAVIS – THE CRESWELL CHRONICLE

Beribboned garlands of flowers adorned women and girls and dancers waved leafy boughs as Moveable Feet and Creswell Library co-hosted Creswell’s sixth annual Maypole Dance, held May 1 in the library’s ”backyard.”
Led by teacher-caller Sally Jenkins, with live accordion music by Ruth Anne Fraley, dancers warmed up with ”The Hokey Pokey” and ”The Chicken Dance,” promenaded their partners during the English ”Circassian Circle.”
”The Festival Processional” led into the featured maypole dances. Dancers held aloft leafy branches donated by Martha McReynolds Jr. in honor of her late mother, an early Moveable Feet supporter.
Around the maypole, dancers holding white or yellow ribbons wove three different patterns. The simplest was ”Barbershop”: Those with white ribbons moved in one direction, closest to the pole, while those with yellow ribbons moved in the opposite direction, farther from the pole; everyone then reversed direction to ”unwind” their ”barber pole.”
The next pattern attempted was ”Spiderweb” – but with so many young dancers present, ”it became a tangle, so we abandoned that and moved on to a pattern called ‘The Plait,’” Jenkins said.
That challenging pattern ”looks like weaving, with white and yellow diamonds alternating in a tube shape around the maypole,” Jenkins said.
The lively ”Sasha” followed the maypole dances, and the evening wrapped with the English ”Battle Barn Dance.”
The next free Moveable Feet dance will be held June 3 in the Creslane Elementary School cafeteria. For more information, call Sally Jenkins at 541-895-2254 or visit http://moveablefeet.weebly.com.

Instagram

 

View this profile on Instagram

 

The Chronicle (@thechronicle1909) • Instagram photos and videos