Dance history Archives – The Historical Dance Society

A History of Country Dancing – Beyond England

David Parsons — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:08:50 +0000

A History of Country Dancingwith 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 […]

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A History of Country Dancing – Twentieth Century

David Parsons — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:04:13 +0000

A History of Country Dancingwith an emphasis on the steps Anne Daye, HDS Director of Education and Research ‘Traditional’ Country Dances The shifting relationship between dance figures and tunes in the nineteenth century followed fashion and the whim of the dancer. However, a constant association between some dances and a tune became popular in certain […]

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A History of Country Dancing – Georgian to Victorian

David Parsons — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 15:53:44 +0000

A History of Country Dancingwith an emphasis on the steps Anne Daye, HDS Director of Education and Research The Georgian Country Dance The first half of the eighteenth century was the heyday of the longways country dance for as many as will, as good footwork was combined with intricate and challenging figures in a dance […]

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A History of Country Dancing – The Later Stuarts

David Parsons — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 11:08:08 +0000

Part 5 of A History of Country Dancing with an emphasis on the steps by Anne Daye. This article considers the development of country dancing following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and the influence of French culture on its character and the steps used.

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A History of Country Dancing – Early Stuarts and The Commonwealth

David Parsons — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 11:07:16 +0000

Part 4 of A History of Country Dancing with an emphasis on the steps by Anne Daye. This part considers references to country dances and the steps used in the early Stuart period, prior to the Civil War, and the publication of The English Dancing Master by Playford during the commonwealth.

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A History of Country Dancing – Elizabethan Country Dance

David Parsons — Thu, 22 Aug 2024 11:05:23 +0000

Part 3 of A History of Country Dancing with an emphasis on the steps by Anne Daye. This article considers what is known of country dances from contemporary sources during the Elizabethan period, from which no choreographies have survived.

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A History of Country Dancing – Origins

David Parsons — Tue, 21 May 2024 16:48:31 +0000

Part 2 of A History of Country Dancing
with an emphasis on the steps by Anne Daye. This article proposes a possible origin for country dances in communal dances for lines of people, known in England and Ireland as 'Long Dances'.

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A History of Country Dancing – Introduction

David Parsons — Tue, 21 May 2024 16:45:39 +0000

Part 1 of A History of Country Dancing
with an emphasis on the steps by Anne Daye.

A complete history of the country dance has yet to be written, and would form a major challenge. This series will give 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.

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A brief history

EmilyBowen — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 20:07:43 +0000

A brief history of the HDS - soon to celebrate our 50th anniverary.

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Baroque period

EmilyBowen — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 18:21:21 +0000

A discussion of Baroque dance notation. Louis XIV ordered academicians to invent a notational system to record dances. At least four systems were in progress in the 1680s, one of which, now known as Beauchamp-Feuillet notation, came to disseminate dances of French style across Europe by means of printing/publishing businesses.

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