ABSTRACT
A brass band cued the start of the dances, no participant left the area during an activity, and dances were performed by all participants at the same time. Presented in this way, a dance like Reap the Flax would appear to viewers as fifty or more groups of girls forming straight-line phalanxes and alternating these formations with single-file chains winding circular patterns; then squares of girls through which dancers wound like thread through spinning wheels; and finally single-file chains winding serpentine patterns. The maypole assigned to each school supplied the spatial point of reference for each group of girls and the underlying organization of the dancing field as a whole. In the final May-pole Dance, girls encircled the poles once more, then braided bright ribbons around them by dancing in circles of ever-diminishing radius. The winding complete, the girls “unshipped” the poles and carried them off the field, supporting them along their length. At a signal, all the participants ran full tilt towards the bandstand at the center of the meadow, yelling and waving banners emblazoned with their schools’ name or the words “Girls’ Branch,” the name of the sponsoring organization. Stopping just short of the bandstand, the girls cheered Elizabeth Burchenal, the park fete organizer, and sang the Star-Spangled
Banner. Tired and probably dusty, scores of girls then turned homeward with their schoolmates while Boy Scouts on clean-up detail took to the field, picking up litter, stray hair ribbons and banners left behind.3
