Dancing a Sailor's Hornpipe with Legs & Co.

 

The girls of Legs & Co. on Blue Peter 

 (BBC Television, 14 Jan 1980) [1]

 

I.  

 

There are numerous variations of the hornpipe, both in terms of dance movements and musical composition. But, in one form or another, it has been performed in Great Britain and Ireland from at least the 16th century [2] until the present day, bringing great joy to one and all.  

 

Interestingly, however, although the hornpipe is today commonly associated with sailors, it didn't become firmly linked in the popular imagination with seamen and seafarers until after 1740, when a popular dancer famously performed a hornpipe dressed as a Jolly Jack Tar at Drury Lane Theatre. 

 

The fact that even members of the Royal Navy were soon copying this routine on board ship - with its famous movements mimicking nautical tasks such as hauling ropes, climbing the rigging, and looking out to sea - is yet another example of life imitating art [3]. 

 

Perhaps surprisingly, captain's would encourage - and sometimes even order - their men to dance the hornpipe, as the exercise kept them in good health when at sea and living in cramped conditions; just as a daily tot of rum kept their spirits up.  

 

 

II.  

'The Sailor's Hornpipe' is a traditional melody that some readers will know from the Last Night of the Proms, when it is played as part of Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs (1905). 

 

Others will recognise it from the Popeye cartoons, where it is usually played as the first part of the opening credits before then being segued into an instrumental version of Sammy Lerner's famous theme 'I'm Popeye the Sailor Man' (1933). 

 

And others will know it from the BBC children's show Blue Peter [4], whose famous signature tune is a hornpipe known by the title 'Barnacle Bill' and written by Herbert Ashworth-Hope, but which between 1979 and 1989 used Mike Oldfield's updated version entitled 'Blue Peter' [5].   

 

 

III. 

 

Now, as readers might probably guess: I don't much care for Mike Oldfield and his Tubular Bells (1973). Nor did I ever watch Blue Peter as a child, preferring the funkier ITV show Magpie [6]. 

 

However, I do like Legs & Co. ... 

 

And their interpretation of Oldfield's version of a sailor's hornpipe - seen first on Top of the Pops in December 1979 [click here] and then on Blue Peter in January 1980 [click here] - wearing extremely fetching sailor outfits that dispensed with trousers but included skimpy bright blue knickers to match with belts and neckerchiefs, ranks amongst their most memorable of performances. 

  

Notes

 

[1] The six girl dance troupe Legs & Co. is composed of Gill Clark, Lulu Cartwright, Patti Hammond, Pauline Peters, Rosie Hetherington, and Sue Menhenick. 

 

[2] The National Maritime Museum traces the hornpipe which, as we will see, hasn't always been associated with sailors and dancing on deck, all the way back to the late 14th century; there are references to the hornpie as instrument - from which the dance takes its name - in Chaucer, for example. See the museum's website: click here. 

 

[3] The idea of life imitating art is a philosophical position most famously put forward by Oscar Wilde in his essay 'The Decay of Lying (1891). It reverses Aristotle's notion of mimesis which argues that art is a representation of life. 

 

[4] Blue Peter is a long-running BBC children's television programme with a nautical title and theme. Due to its longevity, it has established itself as a significant part of British culture and heritage. 

 

[5] Mike Oldfield's version of the Blue Peter theme was the first time the original arrangement had changed since the programme began in 1958. Released as a single on Virgin Records in November 1979, it reached number 19 in the UK charts. For those who might be interested, the official video can be viewed here. 

 

[6] See the post entitled 'Reflections on Seeing a Magpie' (2 December 2024): click here. 

 

 

For a sister post to this one on how watching girls dance makes happy (published 31 May 2015): click here.  

 

 

Do Not Cease Your Dance, Sweet Girls!

The final line-up of Pan's People (1975-76) 

(L-R: Ruth Pearson, Sue Menhenick, Cherry Gillespie, Lee Ward, and Mary Corpe) [1]

 

What we value when we watch a dance is not necessarily the choreography 

or the experience of beauty, but that which makes us feel happy to be alive ... 

 

 

I. 

 

I can't dance. But, like Zarathustra, I am no enemy to the cavorting of nubile creatures with fair ankles: 

 

"Do not cease your dance, sweet girls! No spoil-sport has come to you with an evil eye!" [2]

 

For whether one is watching a group of girls dance in the woods, like Zarathustra and his disciples, or Pan's People on an old episode of Top of the Pops, research suggests that doing so elicits a positive affective response (i.e., it makes you feel good; like a ray of sunshine on a grey day).  

 

 

II. 

 

Most people are aware that physical activities of any description have a beneficial effect on the person who is performing them, but what is less well known is that simply observing others engaged in such can lift one's mood and revitalise. 

 

And so it is that watching girls dance - if only on TV - can be both rousing and arousing and can trigger happy memories, even when the dance moves are not all that sophisticated or aesthetically of the highest calibre [3]. 

 

Watching dance, it turns out, is as effective at inducing measurable changes at various psychophysiological levels as listening to music. For watching girls wiggle around, kick their legs, and shake their bits increases neural activity in limbic structures of the brain and triggers the release of pleasure-related neurotransmitters (such as dopamine). 

 

And so, to quote Zarathustra once more: Do not cease your dance, sweet girls!  

 

 

Notes

 

[1] Pan's People was an all-female British dance troupe, formed and choreographed by Flick Colby, famous for their weekly appearances on Top of the Pops (BBC Television) from 1968 to 1976, dancing to hit records when the artists were unavailable (or unwilling) to perform in the studio. Despite a changing line-up, Pan's People quickly became a crucial element of the show (particularly appreciated by the dads watching at home). 

      As Julia Raeside writes: "Their often literal interpretations of song lyrics and their jaunty girlishness is what most will associate with them", although that's not to deny that, in their innocence and cutesy outfits, they could be provocatively sexy, too. See her article 'Why we fell in love with Pan's People', in The Guardian (30 May 2011): click here. 

 

[2] Nietzsche, 'The Dance Song', Thus Spoke Zarathustra, trans. R. J. Hollingdale (Penguin Books 1969), p. 131. 

      I am aware of the fact there are male dancers and that they also might delight those watching. However, here I'm adopting the perspective of a man who prefers, like Zarathustra and like Bill Cotton, to watch all female dance troupes such as Pan's People and Legs & Co., rather than mixed-sex troupes such as Ruby Flipper. Thus, the aim of this particular post is to contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms which underlie the emotional and aesthetic experience of a straight cismale when watching young women rhythmically move their bodies to music.     

 

[3] It might be noted that research has shown that whilst felt experiences of emotional pleasure seem to correlate with the physical aspects of the actual dance - it's choreography, if you like - sexual arousal is often triggered by something else (i.e., independently of the dance itself). 

      See Julia F. Christensen, Frank E. Pollick, Anna Lambrechts, and Antoni Gomila; 'Affective responses to dance', in Acta Psychologica, Vol. 168 (July 2016), pp. 91-105. For a review of this study by Christian Jarrett in The Psychologist (the journal of the British Psychological Society), click here.    

 

 

Bonus: Pan's People dancing to 'The Hustle' by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony in 1975: click here. 

      This may not be their best routine or performance, but it's a favourite of mine and millions of other viewers on YouTube nostalgic for a lost era. The track, by the way, got to number 3 in the UK singles chart and was released from the album Disco Baby (Avco Records, 1975). 

 

For a sister post to this one, with Legs & Co. dancing to Mike Oldfield's 'Blue Peter' (published 1 June 2025), click here.