English Country Dance
Encyclopedia
English Country Dance is a form of folk dance
. It is a social dance
form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England
is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of the mid-17th century is disputed. English Country Dance (ECD) was popular well into the Baroque
and Regency
eras. Whereas several figures common to English Country Dance, e.g. arming and the straight hey, are found in the traditional dances and display dances such as morris
, ECD's origins rest among the gentry
, first at court, then spreading to bourgeois
-London
, finally moving into country manors
around England
.
The English Dancing Master
of 1651. This collection was reprinted, revised, and enlarged many times, with a final edition published sometime around 1728. Playford was not the author or choreographer of these dances; he was a music publisher, for whom dance manuals were a profitable sideline. By the early 18th century, other publishers began to issue collections of dances as well; a conservative estimate of the number of dances in the English style published between 1651 and 1810 would run to around 20,000. Most of the dances we have from the 17th and 18th centuries are anonymous, notable exceptions being Nathaniel Kynaston and Thomas Bray. Most of these dance collections, unfortunately, offer little or nothing by way of description of steps; at best, they suggest 'floor tracks.'
English Country Dance was also popular in France
. André Lorin visited the English court in the late 17th century and after returning to France he presented a manuscript of dances in the English manner to Louis XIV
. In 1706 Raoul Auger Feuillet
published his Recüeil de Contredances, a collection of "contredanse anglais" presented in a simplified form of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation
and including some dances invented by the author as well as authentic English dances. This was subsequently translated into English by John Essex
and published in England as For the Further Improvement of Dancing. Copies of these books may be found online.
In the early 20th century, ECD was revived in England by Cecil Sharp
, who also was known for collecting folksongs. ECD continues today as a social dancing form, in Britain
, the United States
, and around the world. There are several related dance forms, such as Scottish country dance
, Contra dance
, and perhaps square dance
. There is also English Ceilidh style; a very energetic form that uses simple country dances, newly composed dances and traditional dances that were collected in the twentieth century.
Arm right (or left) - couples link arms and move forward, returning to their starting positions.
Back to back - facing another person, move forward passing right shoulders and fall back to place passing left. May also start by passing left and falling back right. Called a do si do
in other dance forms (and dos-à-dos in France).
Balance back - a single backward.
Both hands - two dancers face each other and give hands right to left and left to right.
Cast off - turn outward and dance outside the set.
Cast up (or down) - turn outward and dance up (or down) outside the set.
Changes (starting right or left) - like the circular hey, but dancers give hands as they pass (handing hey). The number of changes is given first (e.g. two changes, three changes, etc.).
Chassé
- slipping step to right or left as directed.
Circular hey - dancers face partners or along the line and pass right and left alternating a stated number of changes. Usually done without hands, the circular hey may also be done by more than two couples facing alternately and moving in opposite directions - usually to their original places. This name for the figure seems rather modern, since "hey" also means certain long, and not circular, objects (e. g. fences). Nonetheless, some early country dances calling for heys have been interpreted in modern times using circular heys. In early dances, where the hey is called a "double hey", it works to interpret this as an oval hey, like the modern circular hey but adapted to the straight sides of a longways formation.
Clockwise - in a ring, move to one's left. In a turn single turn to the right.
Contrary - your contrary is not your partner. In Playford's original notation, this term meant the same thing that Corner (or sometimes Opposite) means today.
Corner - in a two-couple set, the dancer diagonally opposite, i.e., the first man and the second woman, first woman and second man.
Counter-clockwise - the opposite of clockwise - in a ring, move right. In a turn single, turn to the left.
Cross hands - face and give left to left and right to right.
Cross over - cross with another dancer passing right.
Cross over one couple - cross as above and go outside below one couple ending improper.
Double - four steps forward or back, closing the feet on the 4th step (see "Single" below).
Fall (back) - dance backwards.
Figure of 8- a weaving figure in which dancers pass between two standing people and move around them in a figure 8 pattern. A full figure of 8 returns the dancer to original position; a half figure of 8 leaves the dancer on the opposite side of the set from original position. In doing this figure, the man lets his partner pass in front of him.
Forward - lead or move in the direction you are facing.
Gip or Gypsy - two dancers move around each other in a circular path facing outward or towards the centre as directed (4 bars).
Hands across - right or left hands are given to corners, and dancers move in the direction they face.
Hands three, four etc.. - the designated number of dancers form a ring and move around in the direction indicated, usually first to the left and back to the right.
Hey - a weaving figure in which two groups of dancers move in single file and in opposite directions (see circular hey and straight hey).
Honour - couples step forward and right, close, shift weight, and curtsey
or bow
, then repeat to their left. In the time of Playford's original manual, a woman's curtsey was similar to the modern one, but a man's honour (or reverence) kept the upper body upright and involved sliding the left leg forward while bending the right knee.
Lead - couples join inside hands and walk up or down the set.
Mad Robin - a back to back
with your neighbor while maintaining eye-contact with your partner across the set. Men take one step forward and then slide to the right passing in front of their neighbour, then step backwards and slide left behind their neighbour. Conversely women take one step backwards and then slide to the left passing behind of their neighbour, then step forwards and slide right in front of their neighbour. The term Mad Robin comes from the name of a dance which has the move.
Neighbour - the person you are standing beside, but not your partner.
Opposite - the person you are facing.
Pass - change places with another dancer moving forward and passing by the right shoulder, unless otherwise directed.
Pousette - two dancers face, give both hands and change places as a couple with two adjacent dancers. One pair moves a double toward one wall, the other toward the other wall. In this half-pousette, couples pass around each other diagonally. To complete the pousette, move in the opposite direction. Dancers end in their original places. In a similar movement, the Draw Pousette, the dancing pairs move on a U-shaped track with one dancer of the pair always moving forwards.
Right & left - like the circular hey, but dancers give hands as they pass (handing hey).
Sides - Two dancers, partners by default if not otherwise specified, go forward in four counts to meet side by side, then back in four counts to where they started the figure. As depicted by Feuillet, this is done right side by right side the first time, left by left the second time.
Single - two steps in any direction closing feet on the second step (the second step tends to be interpreted as a closing action in which weight usually stays on the same foot as before, consistent with descriptions from Renaissance sources).
Straight hey for four - dancers face alternately, the two in the middle facing out. Dancers pass right shoulders on either end and weave to the end opposite. If the last pass at the end is by the right. the dancer turns right and reenters the line by the same shoulder; vice versa if the last pass was to the left. Dancers end in their original places.
Straight hey for three - the first dancer faces the other two and passes right shoulders with the second dancer, left shoulder with the third - the other dancers moving and passing the indicated shoulder. On making the last pass, each dancer makes a whole turn on the end, bearing right if the last pass was by the right shoulder or left if last pass was by the left, and reenters the figure returning to place. Each dancer describes a figure of eight pattern.
Swing - a turn with two hands, but moving faster and making more than one revolution.
Three hands across or Three hands star - two dancers join right or left hands. Third dancer places right or left hand on top. Dancers move in the direction they face.
Turn - face, give both hands, and make a complete circular, clockwise turn to place.
Turn by right or left - dancers join right (or left) hands and turn around, separate, and fall to places.
Turn single - dancers turn around in four steps. 'Turn single right shoulder' is a clockwise turn; 'turn single left shoulder' is a counterclockwise turn.
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
. It is a social dance
Social dance
Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...
form, which has earliest documented instances in the late 16th century. Queen Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
is noted to have been entertained by "Country Dancing," although the relationship of the dances she saw to the surviving dances of the mid-17th century is disputed. English Country Dance (ECD) was popular well into the Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
and Regency
English Regency
The Regency era in the United Kingdom is the period between 1811—when King George III was deemed unfit to rule and his son, the Prince of Wales, ruled as his proxy as Prince Regent—and 1820, when the Prince Regent became George IV on the death of his father....
eras. Whereas several figures common to English Country Dance, e.g. arming and the straight hey, are found in the traditional dances and display dances such as morris
Morris dance
Morris dance is a form of English folk dance usually accompanied by music. It is based on rhythmic stepping and the execution of choreographed figures by a group of dancers. Implements such as sticks, swords, handkerchiefs and bells may also be wielded by the dancers...
, ECD's origins rest among the gentry
Gentry
Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....
, first at court, then spreading to bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
-London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, finally moving into country manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
around England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
.
History
Published instructions for English Country Dance first appear in John Playford'sJohn Playford
John Playford was a London bookseller, publisher, minor composer, and member of the Stationers' Company, who published books on music theory, instruction books for several instruments, and psalters with tunes for singing in churches...
The English Dancing Master
The Dancing Master
The Dancing Master is a dancing manual containing the music and instructions for English Country Dances. It was published in several editions by John Playford and his successors from 1651 until c1728...
of 1651. This collection was reprinted, revised, and enlarged many times, with a final edition published sometime around 1728. Playford was not the author or choreographer of these dances; he was a music publisher, for whom dance manuals were a profitable sideline. By the early 18th century, other publishers began to issue collections of dances as well; a conservative estimate of the number of dances in the English style published between 1651 and 1810 would run to around 20,000. Most of the dances we have from the 17th and 18th centuries are anonymous, notable exceptions being Nathaniel Kynaston and Thomas Bray. Most of these dance collections, unfortunately, offer little or nothing by way of description of steps; at best, they suggest 'floor tracks.'
English Country Dance was also popular in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. André Lorin visited the English court in the late 17th century and after returning to France he presented a manuscript of dances in the English manner to Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. In 1706 Raoul Auger Feuillet
Raoul Auger Feuillet
Raoul Auger Feuillet was a French dance notator, publisher and choreographer most well-known today for his Chorégraphie, ou l'art de décrire la danse which described Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, and his subsequent collections of ballroom and theatrical dances, which included his own...
published his Recüeil de Contredances, a collection of "contredanse anglais" presented in a simplified form of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation
Beauchamp-Feuillet notation
Beauchamp–Feuillet notation is a system of dance notation used in Baroque dance.The notation was commissioned by Louis XIV , and devised in the 1680s by Pierre Beauchamp. It was published in 1700 by Raoul-Auger Feuillet, who began a programme of publishing notated dances...
and including some dances invented by the author as well as authentic English dances. This was subsequently translated into English by John Essex
John Essex
John Essex was an English dancer , choreographer and author who promoted the recording of dance steps through notation as well as performing in London theatre...
and published in England as For the Further Improvement of Dancing. Copies of these books may be found online.
In the early 20th century, ECD was revived in England by Cecil Sharp
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp was the founding father of the folklore revival in England in the early 20th century, and many of England's traditional dances and music owe their continuing existence to his work in recording and publishing them.-Early life:Sharp was born in Camberwell, London, the eldest son of...
, who also was known for collecting folksongs. ECD continues today as a social dancing form, in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and around the world. There are several related dance forms, such as Scottish country dance
Scottish country dance
A Scottish country dance is a form of social dance involving groups of mixed couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns according to a predetermined choreography...
, Contra dance
Contra dance
Contra dance refers to several partnered folk dance styles in which couples dance in two facing lines...
, and perhaps square dance
Square dance
Square dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
. There is also English Ceilidh style; a very energetic form that uses simple country dances, newly composed dances and traditional dances that were collected in the twentieth century.
Dance Interpretation (Reconstruction)
Although John Playford used the sub-title Plaine and easie Rules for the Dancing of Country Dances, with the Tune to each Dance, anyone who studies the book now will quickly discover that this is not true. The style is very condensed, with many mistakes, possibly as a quick reminder to people who had danced the dances before and knew exactly what the terms meant. When Cecil Sharp produced his interpretations he was working in the dark, and others have built on (and sometimes disagreed with) his work. Later interpreters include Douglas and Helen Kennedy, Pat Shaw, Tom Cook, Ken Sheffield, Charles Bolton, Michael Barraclough, Colin Hume and Andrew Shaw. Some are concerned with producing something as close as possible to the original; others will introduce major changes in order to make the dance more interesting.Some (modern) English Country Dance terms
Active Couple - for long-ways sets with more than one couple dancing, the active couple is the couple doing the more complicated movement during any given portion of the dance. For duple dances, that is every other couple, and for triple dances, or every third couple is the active couple. The term is applicable to triplet dances, where typically the active couple is the only couple that is active. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, only the active couple—the "1st couple"--initiated the action, other couples supporting their movements and joining in as needed, until they also took their turn as leading couples.Arm right (or left) - couples link arms and move forward, returning to their starting positions.
Back to back - facing another person, move forward passing right shoulders and fall back to place passing left. May also start by passing left and falling back right. Called a do si do
Dosado
Dosado or Dos-a-dos or do-si-do is a basic dance step in such dances as square dance, contra dance, polka, various historical dances, and some reels....
in other dance forms (and dos-à-dos in France).
Balance back - a single backward.
Both hands - two dancers face each other and give hands right to left and left to right.
Cast off - turn outward and dance outside the set.
Cast up (or down) - turn outward and dance up (or down) outside the set.
Changes (starting right or left) - like the circular hey, but dancers give hands as they pass (handing hey). The number of changes is given first (e.g. two changes, three changes, etc.).
Chassé
Chasse
Chasse or chassé rarely chassée is a dance step used in many dances in many variants, all of them being triple-step patterns of gliding character, steps going basically step-together-step. The word came from ballet terminology...
- slipping step to right or left as directed.
Circular hey - dancers face partners or along the line and pass right and left alternating a stated number of changes. Usually done without hands, the circular hey may also be done by more than two couples facing alternately and moving in opposite directions - usually to their original places. This name for the figure seems rather modern, since "hey" also means certain long, and not circular, objects (e. g. fences). Nonetheless, some early country dances calling for heys have been interpreted in modern times using circular heys. In early dances, where the hey is called a "double hey", it works to interpret this as an oval hey, like the modern circular hey but adapted to the straight sides of a longways formation.
Clockwise - in a ring, move to one's left. In a turn single turn to the right.
Contrary - your contrary is not your partner. In Playford's original notation, this term meant the same thing that Corner (or sometimes Opposite) means today.
Corner - in a two-couple set, the dancer diagonally opposite, i.e., the first man and the second woman, first woman and second man.
Counter-clockwise - the opposite of clockwise - in a ring, move right. In a turn single, turn to the left.
Cross hands - face and give left to left and right to right.
Cross over - cross with another dancer passing right.
Cross over one couple - cross as above and go outside below one couple ending improper.
Double - four steps forward or back, closing the feet on the 4th step (see "Single" below).
Fall (back) - dance backwards.
Figure of 8- a weaving figure in which dancers pass between two standing people and move around them in a figure 8 pattern. A full figure of 8 returns the dancer to original position; a half figure of 8 leaves the dancer on the opposite side of the set from original position. In doing this figure, the man lets his partner pass in front of him.
Forward - lead or move in the direction you are facing.
Gip or Gypsy - two dancers move around each other in a circular path facing outward or towards the centre as directed (4 bars).
Hands across - right or left hands are given to corners, and dancers move in the direction they face.
Hands three, four etc.. - the designated number of dancers form a ring and move around in the direction indicated, usually first to the left and back to the right.
Hey - a weaving figure in which two groups of dancers move in single file and in opposite directions (see circular hey and straight hey).
Honour - couples step forward and right, close, shift weight, and curtsey
Curtsey
A curtsey is a traditional gesture of greeting, in which a girl or woman bends her knees while bowing her head. It is the female equivalent of male bowing in Western cultures...
or bow
Bowing (social)
Bowing is the act of lowering the torso and head as a social gesture in direction to another person or symbol. It is most prominent in Asian cultures but it is also typical of nobility and aristocracy in many countries and distinctively in Europe. Sometimes the gesture may be limited to lowering...
, then repeat to their left. In the time of Playford's original manual, a woman's curtsey was similar to the modern one, but a man's honour (or reverence) kept the upper body upright and involved sliding the left leg forward while bending the right knee.
Lead - couples join inside hands and walk up or down the set.
Mad Robin - a back to back
Dosado
Dosado or Dos-a-dos or do-si-do is a basic dance step in such dances as square dance, contra dance, polka, various historical dances, and some reels....
with your neighbor while maintaining eye-contact with your partner across the set. Men take one step forward and then slide to the right passing in front of their neighbour, then step backwards and slide left behind their neighbour. Conversely women take one step backwards and then slide to the left passing behind of their neighbour, then step forwards and slide right in front of their neighbour. The term Mad Robin comes from the name of a dance which has the move.
Neighbour - the person you are standing beside, but not your partner.
Opposite - the person you are facing.
Pass - change places with another dancer moving forward and passing by the right shoulder, unless otherwise directed.
Pousette - two dancers face, give both hands and change places as a couple with two adjacent dancers. One pair moves a double toward one wall, the other toward the other wall. In this half-pousette, couples pass around each other diagonally. To complete the pousette, move in the opposite direction. Dancers end in their original places. In a similar movement, the Draw Pousette, the dancing pairs move on a U-shaped track with one dancer of the pair always moving forwards.
Right & left - like the circular hey, but dancers give hands as they pass (handing hey).
Sides - Two dancers, partners by default if not otherwise specified, go forward in four counts to meet side by side, then back in four counts to where they started the figure. As depicted by Feuillet, this is done right side by right side the first time, left by left the second time.
Single - two steps in any direction closing feet on the second step (the second step tends to be interpreted as a closing action in which weight usually stays on the same foot as before, consistent with descriptions from Renaissance sources).
Straight hey for four - dancers face alternately, the two in the middle facing out. Dancers pass right shoulders on either end and weave to the end opposite. If the last pass at the end is by the right. the dancer turns right and reenters the line by the same shoulder; vice versa if the last pass was to the left. Dancers end in their original places.
Straight hey for three - the first dancer faces the other two and passes right shoulders with the second dancer, left shoulder with the third - the other dancers moving and passing the indicated shoulder. On making the last pass, each dancer makes a whole turn on the end, bearing right if the last pass was by the right shoulder or left if last pass was by the left, and reenters the figure returning to place. Each dancer describes a figure of eight pattern.
Swing - a turn with two hands, but moving faster and making more than one revolution.
Three hands across or Three hands star - two dancers join right or left hands. Third dancer places right or left hand on top. Dancers move in the direction they face.
Turn - face, give both hands, and make a complete circular, clockwise turn to place.
Turn by right or left - dancers join right (or left) hands and turn around, separate, and fall to places.
Turn single - dancers turn around in four steps. 'Turn single right shoulder' is a clockwise turn; 'turn single left shoulder' is a counterclockwise turn.
Related Forms
- English Ceilidh
- Contra danceContra danceContra dance refers to several partnered folk dance styles in which couples dance in two facing lines...
- Choreography and figures in contra dances
- Folk danceFolk danceThe term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
- QuadrilleQuadrilleQuadrille is a historic dance performed by four couples in a square formation, a precursor to traditional square dancing. It is also a style of music...
- Square danceSquare danceSquare dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
- Social danceSocial danceSocial dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...
Dance Associations
- Bay Area Country Dance Society promotes, preserves, and teaches traditional English and American music and dance in the San Francisco Bay area.
- Country Dance and Song Society is a United States umbrella organization whose members enjoy English dance.
- Country Dance*New York runs English and contra dance events in New York City.
- Country Dance Society, Boston Centre runs English and contra dances in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Earthly Delights run dance classes and balls in Australia.
- ECD around the United States A list of English dance series.
- English Folk Dance and Song Society has an online shop selling books and compact disks.
- Felpham & Middleton Country Dance Club has written a history from 1933–1994, just about one of the oldest extant English Country Dance clubs in England.
- Society for Creative Anachronism practices many English country dances in a historical context.
- The Leesburg Assembly is an English Country Dance community centered in Northern Virginia, USA.
History links
- A multi-edition transcription of Playford's The Dancing Master, compiled by Robert M. Keller, hosted by the University of New Hampshire's New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music & Dance.
- A transcription of the first edition of Playford's The Dancing Master.
- The Colonial Dancing Master Books and recordings.
- Alan Winston's history survey English Country Dance and its American Cousin
- Gene Murrow's comments on the history of ECD
- Nicole Salomone's http://www.originsofplayforddance.com