I have a book called "A Festival of the English May", which has about five
pages (plus an erratum sheet) on Maypole dances.  That's more than I want to
type in.  

But if you want the book, you can get it fairly quickly from the Country Dance
& Song Society, at www.cdss.org/sales.  (They're in Western Mass, so if you
- or the bride - wants to phone them up, do it in East Coast business hours.)

Here's a summary:

Your Maypole should have ribbons in only two colors, or at least two families
of colors, and those colors should be in strict alternation along the crown of
the pole.  This can't be fixed.

First, for any dance, divide the group into As and Bs depending on what color
ribbon they're holding.  Don't bother dividing by height or age.  If there are
kids too small to understand instructions, go with "Double Plaiting", below. 
There are circle dances and canopy dances; canopy dances twist the ribbon up in
interesting ways but don't involve a lot of travel.  I wouldn't do more than
one canopy dance, but then, I wouldn't be likely to do more than two or Maypole
dances altogether.


(1) Start with "Barber Pole."  Beginning position: Everybody holds a ribbon and
faces the pole.  As step in, turn left, go around the pole for 8 bars of music
(16 steps), then keep going while the Bs step in, turn right, and go
around (outside the As all the way; no weaving) until you decide that they're
done.  This is the simplest possible Maypole dance.  To unwind, everybody 
turns around and goes back the other way until all the ribbons are unwound.
(You want to leave the pole in "unwound" condition while you still have a bunch
of people; it's a major pain for a few people to try to undo a plaited pole.

(2) "Spider Web".  
Beginning position: As and Bs stand in pairs, A on the left. 

Action: As stand still, holding ribbons taut.  Bs face their A and 
commence traveling around the circle by doing a left shoulder loop 3/4 
around their own A, which puts them traveling counterclockwise;
each time they come to an A they do a complete left-shoulder loop around that 
A and go on to the next; continue until the B ribbon gets used up.  
Everybody oohs and aahs.  Bs unwind by going back the other way,
doing a right-shoulder loop around each A, until they get back home and are
altogether unwound.  Then the Bs stand still while the As commence with a 3/4
right shoulder loop, As continue clockwise making a right shoulder loop around
each B, etc.  (This is clearer with a diagram.)

(3) I'll type in the exact text for "Simple Plaiting":

 Start with partners facing each other: A's right, B's left.  Everyone starts
moving at once, doing a grand right and left without taking hands, passing
right and left shoulders alternately.

When the ribbons have wrapped sufficiently far down the pole to reveal the
characteristic plaited pattern, the teacher calls a halt and tells the dancers
to turn around and go back.  If they haven't had enough, they'll
enthusiastically say so.  But in the end, the pole must be unplaited!  Don't
ever let people leave a pole in its plaited state -- you'll never get it
unplaited on your own.

While dancers are unplaiting the pole, the teacher should remind them to watch
their ribbons, so that any small errors made during plaiting can be corrected. 
Any errors that are missed will cause the dance to lock up.

For bystanders: One of the great unknown treats of this dance, partiularly on a
clear day or one with scattered clouds, is the view of the ribbons from down
beside the pole.  Encourage those not dancing to come inside the "tent" and
look up at the brightly colored streamers being woven or unwoven against the
blue sky.  It is entrancing.  

(4) and for Double Plaiting:

This is the same as Simple Plaiting, except that pairs of people, each person
with a ribbon, take the role of the individual dancers.  This provides a whole
additonal level of high-sprited social interaction during the dancing.

[I omit description of triple plaiting (because I don't understand it; it seems
to involve reels of three traveling around the pole), Amo Amas, and Gypsy Tent,
because they're too complicated to describe without the diagrams, and because I
think you'll blow out everybody's Maypole dance tolerance with the three dances
above.)


You could also teach the Helston Furry dance, which is a nice May celebration
thing and has - I think - a good tune.  They do it with a men's line and a
woman's line, but there's nothing intrinsic to require that, so I'll rewrite
the instructions gender-free and you can do as you please:


The step throughout is a gentle doublestep, starting right foot for both lines.
R-L-R-hop, L-R-L-hop.  Take hands four to start.  (No progression; you just
need to know who you're working with.)

A 1-8: Lead forward (presumably following you to the Maypole).
B 1-4: In fours, right-hand star.
  5-8: Left-hands back.