English Country Dance Party (CD)
English Country Dances a form of social folk dance which originated in Renaissance England, & was popular until the early 19th century in parts of Europe, the American colonies & the United Sates. It is the ancestor of several other folk dances, including contra & square dance. English country dance was revived in the early 20th century as part of the larger English folk revival, & is practised today primarily in North America & Britain. In Britain, this form is often referred to as "Playford", while "country dance" is applied to a range of English folk dances.
Each English country dance is based around is fixed series of movements, call figures, which are uniquely paired with a piece of music. The choreography dictates the interactions between partners & between couples in a set. A set is a group of couples, most commonly two or three, but sometimes four, that interact during a single progression. Rarely, dances call for five or six couples in a set. Most commonly, English country dances are longways & progressive. Multiple sets of couples form two long lines, along which couples travel at the end of each iteration of figures, meeting new couples & repeating the series of figures many times. Alternately, dances can be finite, a set forming a independent unit withing the series of figures are repeated a limited number of times. These dances are often non-progressive, each couple retaining their original positions in decades they are performed.
I hope you like this compilation of essentialy English tunes & dances. Derek Jones - July 2013
Track | Dance | Bars | Type | Formation | Lead Tune |
1 | Leaving of Liverpool | 3 x 32 | Reels | Longways x 3 | Leaving of Liverpool |
2 | Stevies Hop | 8 x 32 (Twice) | Hopstep Reel | Longways | Lollipop Man – Portsmouth Harpers Frolic |
3 | Jubilee Rag | 6 x 32 | Reel | Longways | The Happy Cavalier – Three Scamping Rogues – Maxwells Rants |
4 | Walpole Cottage | 4 + 5 x 48 | Reel | 1 man 2 ladies | Walpole Cottage |
5 | Gossips Reel | 8 x 32 | English Reel | Sicilian Circle | The Girl I left Behind Me – Petronella Shepton Hornpipe – The Rose Tree |
6 | A Trip to Easthamsptead | 5 x 40 |