Talk:Molly dance

GA review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Molly dance/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Caeciliusinhorto (talk · contribs) 19:03, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Reviewer: LunaEatsTuna (talk · contribs) 22:43, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

I will review this within a week or two! ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 22:43, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

Copyvio check

No copyright concerns.

Prose

• In the lead, wikilink Kent.
  • Done Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

History

• I think it would do a lot of good / give readers some context to have even a brief paragraph mentioning what Morris dancing is and a very brief history of it leading into this genre of Morris dance, like a background section.
• Optional, but you could say “(the first Monday after 6 January)” to be a little clearer as dates are often confusing.
  • Do you mean to add this explanation to the lead, or to change the explanation in the body text (currently "the Monday after 6 January")? Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
    • @Caeciliusinhorto: I meant the first sentence in the body, yes! ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 06:20, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
• The article frequently mentions collecting and collectors of folk dances; what does this mean exactly? I presume it means they document them, and this word usage is fully valid, but I might suggest optionally changing it to something else to be a little clearer.
  • Yes, you are understanding it right. "collect" is the word conventionally used in scholarship and in my experience among folk dance people. I don't like "documented" to describe Needham & Peck's activities as to me it implies that they saw the dances being performed and recorded that; rather they recorded the dances as they were described to them by former dancers. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
    • Oh, okay! Yeah, it can definitely remain then. ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 06:15, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
• “dancer from Girton and a concertina player from Histon, near Cambridge” – specify “… from Histon, both near Cambridge”.
  • I went with "... two villages near Cambridge" Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
    • Much better! ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 06:15, 17 April 2026 (UTC)
• I would wikilink the instruments and instrumentalists: concertina, accordion, fiddler and percussionist.
  • "Percussion" is a sufficiently broad category that I'm not sure it's worth linking, but I've linked the others. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Traditions

• “Traditionally Molly dancing” – add a comma after traditionally.
  • Yes Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
• “Along with the dancers, Molly teams were accompanied by various other men who performed specific roles, including an umbrella man, to protect the musician from the weather, a sweeper who carried a broom and would clear a space for the dancers, and the man responsible for the money box” – because this part is quite long, I might use ; for this section as opposed to commas.
  • Yeah, I think you're right here Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Revival

• “Molly dancing was revived in the late 1970s, when teams began to once again perform the preserved dances” – does it mention where in the UK this was?
  • Initially Cambridgeshire – discussed more fully in the next paragraph. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
• “Cotswold-style morris dancing” – wikilink to the styles section of the morris dancing page. Alternatively, you could briefly talk about this in my proposed background section.
  • I've added the wikilink Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
• You can wikilink Kent, even though it is a strange place.
  • Yes, linked Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
• The sentence starting “Their first performance, in December 1977” I think does not really need a semi-colon since this and the next clause are not directly connected but rather connected to the previous sentence; thus, a full stop after mummers' play would be much better here IMO.
  • I think you're right – changed Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)
• “By the year 2000” > you can do “by 2000”.
  • Normally I'd be all for the extra concision, but something about "By 2000" specifically reads awkwardly to me. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Spotchecks

Passes. I decided to check Bradtke as he is cited the most and all sources I checked passed: refs 5, 7, 21, 25 and 32.

Thank you for the great article! I have never read anything dance-related on Wikipedia before, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 02:34, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for your review! I've followed most of your suggestions (see replies inline). I'm still thinking about your question about the broader context of morris dancing – the difficulty is that molly dancing is entirely undocumented before the 1820s, and though it is treated as a form of morris dance today its historical connection to other kinds of morris dance is at best uncertain. Needham and Peck thought that the east anglian display dance tradition might have been some form of hilt-and-point sword dance – and indeed there are some medieval records from relatively-nearby Norfolk which suggest that they did sword dance – but this is speculation at best (and at any rate how that would have connected to the surviving sword-dance traditions in Yorkshire and Northumberland, and how they connect to other English display dances, is still as far as I know pretty mysterious.)

I think the most helpful context to add would be something pretty broad about English display dance, but I will have to have a think about exactly what... Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 11:18, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Okay, I see. I think it is probably best not to include it in that case, given the uncertainty. ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 06:24, 17 April 2026 (UTC)

@Caeciliusinhorto: seeing as the history is uncertain, and I am satisfied with your changes, I would be happy to pass this article for GA status if you have nothing further to add. ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 00:29, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

@Caeciliusinhorto and LunaEatsTuna: Where does this review stand? Is this ready to be promoted? If not, what else needs to be done? Z1720 (talk) 14:53, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

@Z1720 and LunaEatsTuna: I don't have anything further to add here; if Luna is happy then I think this is ready to be closed? Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 18:37, 21 May 2026 (UTC)

Sorry about that! Yes, absolutely: it looks fantastic—nice work on all of the changes. I am happy to pass this lovely article for GA status. Congrats! ❧ LunaEatsTuna (talk), proudly editing since 2018 (and just editing since 2017) – posted at 00:47, 22 May 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.