Alex Helm (1920–1970) was an award-winning British folklorist, described as "one of the most important figures in the study of calendar custom and [folk] dance in post-war England".
He trained to become a teacher at St John's Teacher-training College, York.
[2] During the Second World War he served in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps, reaching the rank of Major.
[3] Helm began to take an interest in the history of dances and dramatic traditions of Lancashire and Cheshire, in part influenced by Margaret Dean-Smith, Librarian of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), with whom Helm had helped to sort and index the Society's papers.
[7] Ordish, a 19th century folklorist who specialised on mummers' plays, had planned – but never completed – a monograph on British folk drama.
[11] English Ritual Drama is now seen as a seminal work, being the "first systematic attempt to list every known occurrence of the folk play in Britain and to provide a source for each location".
Whilst never a field collector, he was hailed for his "great ability to interest and stimulate others, and to guide them with his deep and growing knowledge",[12] Helm died in 1970: his life and work being "cut short as he reached his peak".
[12] Helm had a considerable influence on later customs researchers in England, particularly through the geographic approach he advocated.
His argument that folk dance and folk play should be studied as rituals or customs - as opposed to the literary approach adopted by earlier scholars like E. K. Chambers - became the adopted model (although one criticised by later researchers).
"A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Addenda and Corrigenda".