The Egg Dance

Its springtime even if the snowdrifts outside seem to say otherwise. Lambs are being born, the daffodils are defying the cold to come out, the clocks have gone forward and most of us have spent the last weekend hunting, rolling, painting and eating eggs. For the lucky few the kids are back in school, but for those who still have another week of entertaining to do here at Dancewear Central we have just discovered a more unusual Easter pastime; the egg dance!

Traditionally performed on Easter Monday, the egg dance is thought to have been brought over to England from Germany by the Saxons in the 5^th century. The first record of the egg dance in 1498 however, refers to Margaret of Austria and Philip the Handsome (what a name!) the Duke of Savoy who had to dance together three times through one hundred eggs without breaking one in order to get married. In Britain participants in the egg dance were blindfolded and had to hop between the eggs. The person who managed to complete the dance without breaking a single one would win all the eggs.

There are several versions of the egg dance and they can be easily played at home you don’t even have to put on your ballet shoes. It may be advisable to take it into the garden however, but if you’ve managed to save any chocolate eggs you can play with them instead of boiled eggs. Another version of this Easter tradition is to draw a chalk circle and fill it with several small obstacles. A bowl with an egg in it is then placed in the circle. The contestants have to use their feet to remove the egg from the bowl and place the bowl upside down on top of the egg without leaving the circle or touching any of the other objects. Although the tradition died out in the nineteenth century you sometimes see it demonstrated by Morris Men around Easter time. This year the Bliss Hill Victorian Town at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Shropshire re-enacted a traditional egg dance through its streets. It is easy to keep up this eggcellent tradition in your own garden as well. Indeed it’s just like walking on egg shells.