A History of Country Dancing
with an emphasis on the steps
Anne Daye, HDS Director of Education and Research
The Spread of the Country Dance beyond England
Scotland
The English country dance was first introduced to Scotland when James, Duke of York (later James II) was sent by King Charles to hold court at Holyrood. For his second sojourn in 1681, his daughter Princess Anne (later Queen Anne, and a talented dancer) enjoyed country dancing when confined indoors.
The first known Scottish country dance is John Anderson my jo with choreography and tune found in a manuscript of 1704, yet the dance itself is in the style of the 1680s. Between 1704 and 1749 the development of a Scottish genre of country dance can be traced through manuscript sources. An indication of interest in a new genre of country dancing led to the publication from the mid-18th century of Scottish or Caledonian collections by Walsh and Bremner.
The Scottish country dance is characterised by the use of Scottish tunes, including tunes in common reel, hornpipe and 9/8 jig and strathspey reel, and avoids the French minuet, bourée and rigaudon; further characteristics being the inclusion of the dance figure of the reel and titles referring to Scottish personalities and locations (see also Emerson 1972).
France and Europe
Around 1685, a French dancing master, André Lorin, travelled to England in the train of Le Comte d’Humières to collect examples of the country dance. He claimed that interest in country dancing had been aroused by a visit to the French court from Mr Isaac, a leading London dancing master.
On his return, Lorin prepared two manuscripts recording his discoveries and as a gift to the king, now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale: Livre de Contredance presenté au Roy (BN Francais 1697) and Livre de la Contredance du Roy presenté a Sa Majesté (BN Francais 1698).
The first gives Lorin’s own notation and music for sixteen country dances, both figures and stepping, with an explanation of how a country dance works. Among the dances are several published by Playford, and new ones of his own invention.
The second manuscript, dated 1688, has a preface with fuller detail on the country dance as practised in England, followed by a series of plates using figures in gold and silver, music score, floor diagrams, words, notation, and clear links between the dance and the music for each four-bar stage of Les Cloches ou Le Carillon, dedicated to the King, in other words Christchurch Bells.
Rich with information, Lorin confirms that the English were the inventors of the country dance. He recounts seeing country dancing at court in the informal balls, at assemblies in town, at dancing schools, at masquerade balls, at balls and comedies, in pleasure gardens and in the country.
He tells the king that people of quality devise country dances, as well as dancing masters, with well-founded figures. However, to French taste, the stepping is eccentric and diverse, as each dancer does his own thing, for example one doing a jump or caper while his partner does a simple step. So, Lorin has selected steps that are more suitable, and regulated according to French taste.
Each country dance in notation is presented so clearly that they can be danced today, and they indicate the kind of stepping used in England, although ordered here by a dancing master. The steps are of the new vocabulary called today ‘Baroque’ or ‘French’ steps (modern edition Sutton & Tsachor 2008).
The French interest in English country dancing was further nurtured by Raoul-Auger Feuillet in Recueil de Contredances 1706 published in Paris, using an adaption of the Beauchamp/Feuillet notation to present 32 dances, some familiar from Playford’s publications and some new.
An introduction provides a clear overview of how a country dance works. He states that the steps which best suit country dances are the pas de gavotte, sideways chassés, pas de bourée and skips, and that each figure should be concluded by an assemblé on both feet; a minuet country dance should be done with minuet steps. Further publications followed.
While it is clear that the French took up country dancing after 1688, knowledge of the English genre can be traced back to the 1620s, when Buckingham and his circle used the country dance as the English national dance.
The Country Dance goes International
The English country dance went to America with each wave of settlement, from the early seventeenth century onwards, mutating into local versions of the genre in multiple locations and every century.
From France, the country dance spread across Europe, leading to a diverse and rich development of the genre in many countries. German, Danish, Italian and French masters used various notation systems to record dances.
British colonial rule took the English and Scottish country dance to all parts of the Empire, where naturally further mutations of the genre developed.
Conclusion
The English genius for inventing figures went alongside skilful mastery of the steps of the day. Good footwork helps shape the figures of each dance and also develops the intrinsic link between the music, the figure and the steps.
This was absolutely important in Renaissance times, when the double step, the figure and the music strain went together to provide a harmonious experience. While this loosened with the profound change in stepping c.1700, steps continued to enhance the dance. A key to the need for neat stepping is when there seems to be too much music for a figure.
Stepping continued to be the mode of performing a country dance through the nineteenth century, when country dancing was viewed as excellent aerobic exercise. Only when the genre became degenerate, overtaken by modern forms, did the steps disappear.
Bibliography
Bremner, R. A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances…for the year 1769. London: R. Bremner
Emerson, G.S (1972) A Social History of Scottish Dance. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press
Feuillet, R-A. (1706) Receuil des Contredances. Paris: Feuillet. Facsimile reprint:New York, Broude Bros. 1968
Sutton, J. & Tsachor, R. P. (2008) Dances for the Sun King: André Lorin’s ‘Livre de Contredance’. Annapolis MD: The Colonial Music Institute
Walsh, John Caledonian Country Dances, being a collection of all the celebrated Scotch and English country dances now in vogue. London: J. Walsh c. 1750 3rd edition.