Lois Blake Explained

Lois Blake
Birth Name:Lois Agnes Fownes Turner
Birth Date:21 May 1890
Birth Place:Streatham, London, U.K.
Death Date:19 November 1974 (age 84)
Death Place:Marshfield, U.K.
Occupation:Folklorist, dance scholar

Lois Blake (21 May 1890 – 19 November 1974), born Lois Agnes Fownes Turner, was a British folklorist and "the driving force behind the revival of folk dancing in Wales."[1] She was the founding president of the Welsh Folk Dance Society in 1949.

Early life and education

Blake was born in Streatham, London, the daughter of Henry Fownes Turner and Amy Dickes Turner. Her mother died in 1893, and she was raised in the household of an aunt and uncle.

Career

Blake served as a nurse, driver, and cook during World War I, in Serbia, Romania, and Russia. She was a member of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and while she was living in Wales made a study of traditional Welsh folk dances, and taught dances to children. She "almost singlehandedly rescued the remaining fragments of a once common Welsh tradition".[2] She was the founding president of the Welsh Folk Dance Society in 1949.[3] She was a dance judge at the National Eisteddfod, lectured to local groups on her work,[4] and helped the Urdd Gobaith Cymru youth organization on teaching Welsh dances to young people.[5] She was admitted into the Gorsedd Cymru in 1960.[6]

Publications

Personal life and legacy

Turner married marine engineer Leonard James Blake in 1917. They lived mainly in Llangwm, Wales, and had two children, Felicity (born 1920) and James (born 1918). Her son died in 1945, and her husband died in 1959. She moved to Bristol in widowhood, to live with her daughter, and died in 1974, at the age of 84, at Marshfield. There is a Lois Blake Memorial Trophy presented at the National Eisteddfod, for performing one of the Nantgarw dances Blake documented.[14]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Hyde . Dale . 2012. Welsh Folk Dance History . 2024-03-17 . Folk Dance Federation of California, South.
  2. Web site: 10 April 2007 . Welsh Folk Dancing - Almost lost without trace . 2024-03-17 . Museum Wales . en.
  3. Web site: Welsh Folk Dance History - Dawnsio . 2024-03-18 . en-US.
  4. News: 1951-03-09 . West Mid-Glamorgan Group Meeting . 2024-03-18 . The Glamorgan Gazette . 7 . Newspapers.com.
  5. News: 1964-04-03 . Aberfan Folk Festival Planned for June . 2024-03-18 . The Glamorgan Gazette . 6 . Newspapers.com.
  6. Web site: Palfrey . Eiry . Blake, Lois (1890 - 1974), historian and promoter of Welsh folk dancing . 2024-03-17 . Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
  7. January 1949 . Review of 'Welsh Folk Dance', by Lois Blake (The Gwynn Publishing Co., Llangollen, North Wales, 1948.) 20 pp. . Journal of the International Folk Music Council . en . 1 . 65–66 . 10.2307/835952 . 0950-7922.
  8. Blake, Mrs. Lois. "The Three Merry Dancers of Wales." Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (1958): 166-167.
  9. Book: Blake, Lois . Welsh Folk Dancing and Costume . 1965 . Gwynn Pub. . en.
  10. News: Roberts . Gwilym . 1954-04-22 . Day to Day in Wales; Welsh folk dancing . 2024-03-18 . Liverpool Daily Post . 1 . Newspapers.com.
  11. Blake . Loïs . 1966 . The Nantgarw Dances . Folk Music Journal . 1 . 2 . 102–106 . 0531-9684.
  12. Blake, Lois. Traditional Dance and Customs in Wales. Gwynn Publishing Company, 1972.
  13. Blake, Lois. "The general characteristics of Welsh Folk Dance." Welsh Folk Dance Society Journal 75 (1974).
  14. News: 1996-07-12 . Memories in music . 2024-03-18 . The Vale Advertiser . 4 . Newspapers.com.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lois Blake".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.