Tags: Folk  Historical  Isle  Man  Manx  Manxman45  Music  of  World  
Channel: Music
Uploaded: May 17, 2008 at 3:37 pm
Author: manxman45
Length: 03:23
Rating: 4.50
Views: 120
In my childhood, following in my brother's footsteps, I performed certain solo Manx traditional dances under the tutelage of Mr Leighton Stowell of Castletown, Manx historian as well as being headmaster of Ballasalla School. His daughter Aileen Hall accompanied my dancing, singing the tunes to which I danced. In this case she sang in Manx and because I danced to her accompaniment so many times, I learnt the song without realising I had done so. On one occasion, Aileen could not remember the words and after the usual humming introduction, continued humming instead of singing the words. I realised what had happened and sang the first line myself after which she was able to continue. We laughed about it afterwards.The photographs I show in the video are of my brother, Roadley, with Aileen and then myself with Aileen and on my own. The latter ones were taken on Port Erin Beach by the photographer from the Daily Express who was covering the festival for that paper. The photo of me performing the salute was the one published in the paper.The dance itself is reputed to be the oldest recorded dance in the British Isles and was discovered and revived by Leighton Stowell and Mona Douglas, two keen scholars of Manx history in the mid 20th century.