Abbots Bromley Horn Dance parish boundaries. The dance itself is simple, since the antlers themselves have some weight to them and are large and bulky. As described by Cecil Sharp, there are six figures in the dance. He describes the dance as being done with the participants in a single line; however, it is currently performed with the dancers in a double column. Abbots Bromley Horn Dance The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is an English folk dance dating back to the Middle Ages. The dance takes place each year in Abbots Bromley, a village in Staffordshire, England. The modern version of the dance involves
Abbots Bromley Horn Dance hunting lands in Needwood Forest and Cannock Chase surrounding Abbots Bromley. On this theory, the royal forester would have organised sympathetic magic rituals to ensure a plentiful catch each year, a tradition that survived into Christian times and gradually came to be seen as affirming the villagers' hunting rights. Even when the lands were granted to Burton Abbey in 1004 a forester would still need to have been employed. By the 16th century, when the abbey was dissolved, this was a hereditary position with the title "Forester of Bentylee" (Bentylee being the wooded area of the parish). From then until