Dance is always bubbling up through popular culture, perhaps most notably in recent years through Strictly Come Dancing, but for many people past and present it is a hobby to be enjoyed with friends and family.
It’s rare that people need an excuse to dance. Whether it is a traditional festival like May Day, a celebration on a national scale like the Festival of Britain, or a night in a Fareham youth club, people of all ages from across the twentieth century and all across Hampshire always find good reason to enjoy themselves.
A fancy dress ball, St Faiths Hall, Havant, Hampshire,1906.Plaiting the maypole, Waterlooville, Havant, Hampshire.Showing guests at a Ball, Drill Hall, Basingstoke, Hampshire,1902.Children performing a dance, Tasker and Co, Waterloo Foundry, Anna Valley, Abbotts Ann, Hampshire.
Three images of a ballet scene, The Lodden Valley, Pageant of Basingstoke History, for the Festival of Britain, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 1951.People dressed in 19th century period clothing and performing a period dance in an unknown field, circa. 1946-55. Hampshire Chronicle.Winchester Pageant, 1908.Basingstoke, circa.1920-30.Group of people attending St Patrick's Day dance at Lee Tower Ballroom, Lee-on-the-Solent, Gosport, Hampshire, 1949.Disc jockey, Stewart Painter at Fareham Youth Club, circa.1970.Woodcraft boys and girls dance the round the maypole at Portchester Castle, 1950.
Visit Hampshire in Old Photographs to explore more of the history of Hampshire through the photographic collections managed by Hampshire Cultural Trust.
