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Dance

Picking Up Sticks

Picking Up Sticks is an English country dance for three couples in a line, recorded by John Playford in 1651.

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Quick guide to Picking Up Sticks

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Picking Up Sticks is an English country dance for three couples in a line, recorded by John Playford in 1651.

01 · What it is
Dance

Live movement, rhythm, costume, or staged dramatic performance passed between generations.

02 · Where & name
Geography awaiting source

Add a cited source naming the region or community that carries it.

03 · How it is doing
□□□□ (Not yet assessed)

Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.

04 · Proof & reuse
2 cited sources

Every claim links to a public record below. Free to quote, teach, and share under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Chapter Takeaways
TuneThis is NOT the tune for Picking Up Sticks.
Stepsreconstructed by Greg Lindahl
External sourcesPicking up Sticks on The Traditional Tune Archive
Common Questions Answered on Record
What is Picking Up Sticks in plain words?

Picking Up Sticks is an English country dance for three couples in a line, recorded by John Playford in 1651.

Where is Picking Up Sticks practised or documented?

No verified geographic place has been linked on record yet — editors can add a cited place from the edit page.

What is the current condition of Picking Up Sticks today?

□□□□ (Not yet assessed): Documented in open cultural records, but no cited field assessment of its current vitality has been added here yet.

How do I cite or share this Picking Up Sticks entry?

Cite as: "Picking Up Sticks." folkroom, https://folkroom.org/art-forms/picking-up-sticks, text CC BY-SA, with attribution.

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The tradition & historical record

1 min read · 2 sources

Picking Up Sticks is an English country dance for three couples in a line, recorded by John Playford in 1651. 1

Tune

This is NOT the tune for Picking Up Sticks. This tune is called Lavena (also from 1651) and Cecil Sharp substituted the tune at the beginning of the 20th century. 1

Steps

reconstructed by Greg Lindahl 1

External sources

Picking up Sticks on The Traditional Tune Archive 1

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Picking Up Sticks”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. 1

Picking Up Sticks is English country dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. 2

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. 2

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Sources on Record
[1]Wikipedia: Picking Up Sticks · encyclopedia
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Questions awaiting a cited source

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How many people perform it today?
When is it first attested, and by whom?
What does it look like? No licensed photograph yet.

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