The painting for which this is a study was originally entitled The Lambeth Walk. It clearly does not show the Lambeth Walk, a strutting, jaunty dance that made play on the evening promenade and became the subject of a popular song by Noel Gay in 1937 www.bbc.co.uk/london/yourlondon/london_history/lambeth_walk. The work was titled The Folk Dance when shown at the Redfern Gallery, London in summer 1942 and shows six couples dancing a reel to the music of an accordian and a violin.