ABOUT OXBLOOD MOLLY & OUR DANCERS

 

 

 

A Brief History of Molly Dancing

 

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Molly dancing is a form of English Morris dance, traditionally done by out-of-work ploughboys in midwinter in 19th century East Anglia.

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Molly dancing is associated with Plough Monday, the first Monday after Epiphany, during which farmhands would drag a plough round the villages crying “a penny for the plough boys”, and if no penny was forthcoming, cut a furrow across the cheapskate’s front lawn.

 

The dancers, wishing to gain employment from those same landowners shortly afterwards, would attempt to conceal their identities by blacking their faces with soot and dressing up in a modified version of their Sunday best, typically black garments adorned with coloured scarves and other fripperies. It was originally an all-male tradition but with one of the members—the Molly—dressed up as a woman.

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Molly dancing all but died out after the First World War, but was revived in the nineteen seventies evolving into the popular and artistic dances we see today.

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Molly dancing has a step all of its own, bringing one leg up so that the thigh is horizontal and the calf vertical, with the arm on the opposite side making an “L” shape with clenched fist.

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Oxblood Molly Dancers, Musicians & Members: