Given the mingling between the sexes at Maypole dance, fertility symbols are ripe in literature surrounding the Maypole. Although the Maypole was stripped of its fecund possibilities, the dance itself remained full of sensual potential — even Alcott’s heroines “dance to [their] heart’s content” at extravagant parties teeming with eligible gentlemen. Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes — a company that reinvigorated the art of performing dance — attracted writers like Mallarmé, Yeats and Virginia Woolf. In fact, in her works, Woolf questions the literary convention that used dance to identify moments of social integration. In “A Dance at Queen’s Gate”, she writes, “Dance... stirs some barbaric instinct... you forget centuries of civilization in a second, & yield to that strange passion which sends you madly whirling round the room.”The ambit of dance has expanded since.

Source: The Telegraph May 07, 2020 21:55 UTC