21May 2024 by David Parsons

A History of Country Dancing – Origins

Dance history
Anne Daye, HDS Director of Education and Research Origins I propose that the country dance evolved from the communal dances by a line of people. These still exist in local practice all over Europe, such as the carole (sung and danced), cousin to the kolo of Yugoslavia, hora of Rumania, horo of Bulgaria, the khorovod of Russia and la danza grande of Northern Spain. With a repetitive step pattern, the line travels onward guided by a leader, passing through the streets of the town, forming circles, spirals and weaving patterns in open places. Such a line can easily form into pairs to make further interactive patterns down the line. Two good examples of this genre in an elite setting are La Chiaranzana (described by Fabritio Caroso, dancing master of Rome,…
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21May 2024 by David Parsons

A History of Country Dancing – Introduction

Dance history
A History of Country Dancingwith an emphasis on the steps Anne Daye, HDS Director of Education and Research Introduction A complete history of the country dance has yet to be written, and would form a major challenge. Here you will find an overview of the country dance from the 16th to 19th centuries, as a framework for discussion of the changing steps with which it was danced. The term ‘country dance’ is first recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary in the play Misogonus Act 2 scene iv, printed in 1577. This implies that the genre was well known at the time; if the play was written in 1560, then we can assume that the country dance was a well-established genre by the middle of the sixteenth century. The English measures…
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11Nov 2020 by EmilyBowen
A brief history

A brief history

Dance history
Ann Hinchliffe with Anne DayeHave you ever wondered where our wonderful folk dances come from? Why Cotswold morris echoes the structure of Black Nag and Picking up Sticks? How Jane Austen’s characters could talk so much while they were dancing? These are topics that the Historical Dance Society researches, publishes and teaches, in UK and other countries. They’ve been doing that since 1971, and next year will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. It began with Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940), who crystallised current interest in early music just as Cecil Sharp did with English folk dance, music and song. You may remember Dolmetsch recorders from your own school-days. Dolmetsch was trained as a craftsman at his parents’ piano manufactory in France, then studied at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles where he encountered musicians playing…
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24Apr 2020 by EmilyBowen
Baroque period

Baroque period

Dance history, Education, For dancers, For musicians
Following the foundation of the Académie royale de danse in 1661, Louis XIV ordered academicians to invent a notational system to record dances.  In response, at least four systems were in progress in the 1680s, one of which came to disseminate dances of French style across Europe by means of printing/publishing businesses. This prevalent system is called Beauchamp-Feuillet notation today after the names of the inventor/academician, Pierre Beauchamp, and the business man/dancing-master, Raoul-Auger Feuillet.  Over 350 dances are extant in this notation system in print and/or manuscript spanning the late 17th to mid-18th centuries, a period roughly matching the baroque era classified in other disciplines (those in the late 18th-century sources are re-notations of earlier publications, except Auguste F. J. Ferrère’s manuscript of theatre production from 1782).  Whereas the baroque style in other art…
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17Jul 2019 by EmilyBowen

What is historical dance?

Dance history, Education
Historical Dance, or Early Dance, embraces social dancing of the courts and ballrooms of Europe, and choreographies from theatre and court entertainments. The periods covered range from the fifteenth century to the twentieth. Within this span, periods are often identified by slightly arbitrary titles, such as: Renaissance dance (in England, Elizabethan dance and Tudor dance) Baroque dance Regency dance and Victorian dance Some typical dance forms, in approximate chronological order, are: Basse danse, Bassa danza, Ballo Tourdion, Pavan, Almain, Galliard, Canario, Passomezzo (or Passo e mezo) Country dance, Gigue, Sarabande, Rigaudon, Minuet (or Menuet) Cotillion, Quadrille, Mazurka, Waltz Early Dance is based on careful research into original dance sources.  Dances are taught at many practical courses. Occasions such as revels, balls and assemblies provide opportunities for social dancing. Find out…
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