What is English Country Dance?
English Country Dance is an old dance form revived for modern dancers.
It can claim square and contra dance as descendants. The musicologist
and folklorist Cecil Sharp began the revival of ECD in the 1910s,
interpreting old texts and living village traditions; we now delight in
dances as old as Boston itself, and new dances that use old figures in
new ways. Our dances are not solos (like club dancing) or duets (like
waltzes) but ask for the cooperation of four, six, or many more.
Why dance without gender roles?
Gender-free dancing includes and celebrates all the dancers, and
emphasizes the balance and symmetry of the dances. In dancing with
everyone else there, we create community, both on and off the dance
floor: our dancers move together to make it all happen. We owe this
ap-proach to Carl Wittman (1943-1986), who recognized that dancers
didn’t need to be divided into male-female couples. English Country
Dance, with its attention to symmetries of form, is especially suitable
to gender-free dancing: each dancer in every position has an important
role to play. We describe movement in ways that de-emphasize gender
roles and couples, and use simple cue words based on position.
What happens at the dance?
The “caller” announces the dance by name, and dancers form “sets”:
often a “longways” set, two lines of people facing each other down the
room, but there are other types. There’s no need to bring a partner to
the evening, or to the dance floor: you find your dance partner across
from you in the lines, on either side. The caller explains the figures,
and the dancers will “walk through” them (i.e., without music). Then
the music starts, and, to the caller’s gentle cues, the magic of
English Country Dance begins.