Allison Thompson

I am a folk dance historian, dancer, musician and dance teacher. My interest in May Day and maypole dancing was sparked in 1977 when I taught my fellow students maypole dances and English country dancing for Earlham College's Big May Day Festival of 1977--an Elizabethan gala featuring 1,400 costumed students and faculty. I began to wonder why such an event existed, and discovered a long-held tradition of girls and women in the U.S. who celebrated the spring by holding festivals involving crowning a May Queen, flowers, processions through college campuses, the maypole dance and the play or pageant put on to entertain the Queen.

I think you'll enjoy finding out why--as well as learning how communities across the country celebrate May Day today.

For readers who want to connect historical social dance with literature, check out Dancing Through Time where I use excerpts from novels, plays and poetry to illustrate the customs of the ballroom. This work enables lovers of literature and of dance to gain added understanding of the feelings created by dancing well, dancing badly, or dancing not at all.

Check out my other works at The Squirrel Hill Press!