Clog and stage dancer, also performing as a contortionist. Born c1880 as Edith Roberts, later adopting Dot Arlyn as her stage name.
Known from the Colne area of Lancashire where she taught clog and stage dancing, one of her pupils being Upton Hobson to who she taught clog dancing, a sand dance and a soft shoe shuffle.
As a professional performer she is known to have worked as a novelty dancer and contortionist, her first recorded performance being in Stourbridge in February 1919 (Stage, 6/2/1919, p7). She was often on the same bill as “The Four Rosebuds” with whom she may have had some connection. Her professional carrer seems to have been fairly short-lived, her last known performance being in Kirckaldy in August 1924. (Fife Free Press and Kirckaldy Advertiser, 2/8/1924.
Whether she included clog dancing in her performances is not known, however she did perform a “skipping rope dance” at Kettering in May 1919 (Stage 1/5/1919 p22) however that could of course have been performed in taps.
She later married and moved to Fife where she ran a successful dancing school from at least 1944 to 1955, her pupils performing at local concerts and events.
Information derived from Pilling, J., “The Lancashire Clog Dance”, Folk Music Journal, 1.3, 158-179 and a letter J. Pilling to Tom Flett 29/11/1959.