Burton Stather Broom Dance
This dance was originally taught to some of the side at a workshop in Lincoln run by Liam Robinson who had put the dance together from material collected at Burton Stather. The tune was also collected with the dance. Broom dances were widely danced throughout Lincolnshire.
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The Wanderer
This new dance is danced to an old Lincolnshire tune called ‘Lincolnshire Ladd' given us by Brian Dawson. The dance contains a circular movement weaving from side to side with the last dancer becoming the leader and casting off. The name for the dance comes from our local river the Trent whose name means ‘wanderer'. This name well fits the movement of the dance.
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Baccapipes Dance
In our archives we have a number of accounts of a dance done using two crossed clay pipes or a crossed fork and poker as at North Muskham. Descriptions describe the dance as being like the baccapipes jig which survived in Oxfordshire. The tune we use is the Lincoln Hornpipe. We use simulated clay pipes to make the cross on the floor.
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King Lud's Dance
In this Dance the dancers use castanettes to make a clicking sound and which has a distinctive cast out and ziz-zag movement. Legend has it that King Lud used to live in Sherwood forest from where he would make forays into the local area to smash the machines that were putting local people out of work.
This is danced to 'The Market Rasen Quickstep'.
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The Holderness Rattle
This was the first dance developed by Rattlejag. It is our interpretation of one of the dances in ‘Forgotten Morris' collected by Paul Davenport mainly from Mr Alan Foster of Roos. In our version of the dance the dancers use ‘cha cha' shakers made from goats toe nails to make a rattling noise. Roos is in Holderness hence the name.
The tune we use is ‘The Cuckstool'.
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Mrs Clarke's Fancy
This dance is based on the second of the two dances collected by Paul Davenport mainly from Alan Foster of Roos. This dance was danced with ‘flags'. Rattlejag use sticks with bells and long ribbons attached. The dance is named after Mrs Clarke from Ranby near Retford who in an essay she wrote about her childhood for a competition described morris dancers from her village dancing at Christmas time in the eighteen nineties.
The tune is ‘The Curly Headed Ploughboy'.
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The Termagant
The film ‘Sleepy Hollow' was based on the book by Washington Irvine. In 1835 Washington Irvine visited Newstead Abbey near Nottingham where he saw morris dancers on plough Monday one of which he described as a ‘termagant old beldam'. This four person dance was developed by Rattlejag in their second practice season.
The tune we use is ‘The Louth Quickstep'.
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Snaith Snake Dance
This dance is developed from material in ‘Forgotten Morris' collected from the village of Snaith near Doncaster. The tune we use is ‘The Blizzard' written by Mats Eden which we first heard in a session at the Blue Bell at Gringley-on-the-Hill.
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The Golden Ball
Our local research found that morris dancers would regularly visit Worksop in the C19th where they would dance in the square outside the Golden Ball pub. The tune is a variant of one used by the Oaks and Acorns garland side.
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Rattlejag Broom Dance
We found evidence that broom dancing was once widespread in Lincolnshire. This is a four person dance developed from a single jig using a tradition broom dance tune.
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Rattle Off
Many sides have a final dance in which members of the audience are invited to join. Not to be outdone this is usually our final dance. It was taught us by Martin from Poacher Morris and is based on the dance they do from Evesham. The tune we use is the ‘Newark Quickstep'.
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Turk's Head, Castle Hill and Broadsides
These are three dances which were developed by Broadstone Morris and adopted by Rattlejag. ‘The Turk's Head' is named after the pub to which the side goes after practice. We use sticks with bells and ribbons attached,and is danced to the tune Willow tree played on the Leicestershire bagpipes. The stick dance Castle Hill is named after castle hill at Laxton where Rattlejag dance at sunrise every May 1st. The tune used is ‘I'll go and Enlist' . The dance Broadsides is a stick dance danced to a tune written for the dance by Ayliffe Rose.
Click here to listen to the tune Broadsides
Click here to listen to the tune Castle Hill
Click here to listen to the tune Turks Head
Molly Broom
This is our latest addition to our dance repetoire. the dance is danced by eight dancers four carrying besoms and four with brooms. It is danced to the music of a Lincolnshire tune called 'The Congress at Laceby' . There is an account of gangs of youths following the dancers in Lincoln 'shouting and bawling at Moll with the Broom' hence the name Molly Broom.
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Rattlejag Sword Dance
There are many references to sword dancing in our area. Using some of the suggestions from ’The Forgotten Morris’ (P Davenport) we have developed our own sword dance which is deliberately intended to be halfway between a Long Sword dance and a Morris stick dance. Our dance also includes a dancing over the swords move as suggested at Coxbench (Derbyshire). After much experiment we seem to have worked a way in which the different elements fit together and the dance is very much our own interpretation of the evidence available. The dance is done to a tune written by Malcolm called 'The Rattlejag March' .
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