The Vale Island Dancers

10th  December 2007 - at the BerksFHS Abingdon Branch
Summary provided by Sue Matthews

Our interesting meeting on the10th of December was something quite different. When we were visited by the ‘Vale Island Dancers’.

The Vale Islanders are a group of dancers who perform the English country dances of the seventeenth century in the costume of the period. The group started in the village of Charney Bassett in the autumn of 1995, and their first public performance was on May Day 1996, on Charney Bassett Village Green. Their name reflects their roots in the island villages Charney Bassett, Goosey, Stanford in the Vale, and Hanney in the Vale of the White Horse.

In their dancing they aim to reflect the dances of the ordinary people of the Vale 350 years ago. All the dances are taken from "The English Dancing Master" first published by John Playford in 1651. It contains instructions for 105 dances with the tune for each dance. This was the first of 18 editions, all the other editions being simply entitled "The Dancing Master". The final edition was published around 1728. The group are regular performers at the Oxford Folk Festival.

As well as dancing energetically for about one hour they played music, sang songs and recited ‘lewd’ rhymes of the time.

I would recommend them to any Family History Society or Local History Society, when you want something a little bit different.

updated 17^th Dec 2007