It's Burns Night - And Wee Willie Will Dance!

[WillFly]

I'm at a music session in Ditchling in Sussex tonight - which happens to be Burns Night - and will be bringing my jig doll, Wee Willie, out to dance from time to time. Jig dolls - called "limberjacks" in the US - are a very old form of street entertainment. A jointed wooden doll is fitted with a horizontal rod on its back and bounced on a piece of flexible birch board so that it dances.

 

My dolls are made for me by a Suffolk maker called Chris Harvey. This one is my own design - a combination of two of Chris's designs. He used to make a Rolph Harris "Jake The Peg" doll with three legs (bet that one's out of fashion now), and a Scottish male doll. So I got him to combine the two by making a triple-legged doll - except that the middle leg is... what a Scotsman has under the kilt... Wee Willie's "middle leg" is actually made of lead to give it a bit of swing, and if you look carefully, you might see it making an occasional appearance, fleetingly, from under the kilt...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIUPkF2k_6I

Edited January 25, 2015 by WillFly

[Geo]

Will, I sincerely hope that your right hand is operating that doll and not something else!!!!

Being a true Scotsman, I will be having haggis tonight, washed down with a wee Drambuie. :-)

[clockboy]

Nice rhythmic dance operated by a very rhythmic hand action.

My mind just drifted to all sorts of thoughts that a 63 year old just should not be thinking of. :startle:  

[Geo]

Nice rhythmic dance operated by a very rhythmic hand action.

WHAT!!!

Laddie, that's no hoo ye dae a pa de bas, yer needin educated. :)

[Lawson]

That's exactly what it looks like when I dance :huh:

[bobm12]

Nice Will, I enjoyed it!

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[frenchie]

That's exactly what it looks like when I dance :huh:

I almost chocked on my tea !! :)

 

 

Will : is this a tradition of some sort? I mean those dancing doll things.

[Mark]

WHAT!!!

Laddie, that's no hoo ye dae a pa de bas, yer needin educated. :)

 

Wat yanaboot laddie?

 

:D

 

Will - what a riot!! 

[WillFly]

I almost chocked on my tea !! :)

 

 

Will : is this a tradition of some sort? I mean those dancing doll things.

Just back from dancing it at the session tonight - great fun!

 

As I said in the original post, they were a form of street entertainment in cities in the UK and North America - mainly carved and danced by itinerant street entertainers at the turn of the 19th/20th century. There was a very famous one in Liverpool in the early years of the 20th century called Seth Davy - a black guy. There was even a song about him with words like,

 

"Come day, go day, wishing my heart for Sunday,

Drinking buttermilk all the week, whisky on a Sunday."

[clockboy]

I am sure the one on the left is a copy of Willfly have a look  :D

 

[Geo]

I am sure the one on the left is a copy of Willfly have a look  :D

 

http://youtu.be/BDE3NzKVKa0

At first I thought you were talking about the dolls! :)