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A country dance is any of a very large number of of a type that originated in England in the British Isles; it is the repeated execution of a predefined sequence of figures, carefully designed to fit a fixed length of music, performed by a group of people, usually in couples, in one or more sets. The figures involve interaction with your partner and/or with other dancers, usually with a progression so that you dance with everyone in your set. It is common in modern times to have a "caller" who teaches the dance and then calls the figures as you dance. Country dances are done in many different styles. "Dance Videos", contrafusion.co.uk
As a musical form written in or time, the contredanse was used by Beethoven and Mozart. Beethoven's 6 Ecosaises WoO83 are dated to 1806. Mozart's 6 Ländlerische Tänze, K.606 are dated to 1791.
Introduced to South America by French immigrants, Country Dance had great influence upon Latin American music as contradanza.
The Anglais (from the French language word meaning 'English') or Angloise is another term for the English country dance. A Scottish country dance may be termed an écossaise. Irish set dance is also related.
Thomas Wilson, in 1808, wrote, "A Country Dance is composed of an indefinite number of persons, not less than six, but as many more as chuse, but six are sufficient to perform any figure in the treatise." Wilson was writing about his own period. In fact, there are numerous dances for two couples, and quite a few for three or five dancers.
A figure is a pattern that the dancers trace along the floor, simple ones such as Circle Left are intuitive and can be danced with no prior knowledge, while complex moves such as Strip the willow need to be taught. The stepping and style of dancing varies by region and by period.
Wilson in 1820 wrote, "Country Dance Figures are certain Movements or Directions formed in Circular, Half Circular, Serpentine, Angular, Straight Lines, etc. etc. drawn out into different Lengths, adapted to the various Strains of Country Dance Music." . Again, the possible figures are limited only by the imagination of the choreographer. Examples of some of the figures are provided in the Glossary of country dance terms.
The music most commonly associated with country dancing is folk/country/traditional/historical music, however, modern bands are experimenting with countless other genres.
While some dances may have originated on ,Percy Scholes, The Oxford Companion to Music, Oxford University Press 1970, article "Country dance". the vast majority were, and still are, written by dancing masters and choreographers.
Each dance consists of a series of figures, hopefully smoothly linked together, designed to fit to the chosen music. The most common form of music is 32 bar jigs or reels, but any music suitable for dancing can be used. In most dances the dancers will progress to a new position so that the next time through the music they are dancing with different people.
While English folk dance clubs "Set and Turn Single", directory of folk dance clubs, setandturnsingle.org.uk generally embrace all types of country dance, American English country dance groups "ECD (English country dance) around the United States", www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/~winston/ tend to exclude modern contra dances and .
Country dancing is intended for general participation, unlike folk dances such as clogging, which are primarily , and in which dancers dance with their partners independently of others. Bright, rhythmic and simple, country dances have appeal as a refreshing finale to an evening of stately dances such as the minuet.
Historically, the term contra dance is another name for a country dance. Howe, in 1858, wrote that "The term 'Country Dance' is the one invariably used in all books on dancing that have been published in England during the last three centuries, while all works issued in France within the same period employ the term Contra Dance, or in French "Contre Danse". As the authority is equally good in both cases, either term is therefore correct. The Country or Contra Dance has been one of the most popular amusements in the British Isles, France, and other continental countries from time immemorial". Howe's Complete Ball-room Hand Book, p. 25 However, "contra dance" is most commonly used today to refer to a specific American genre called contra dance.
John Playford's The English Dancing Master (1651) listed over a hundred tunes, each with its own figures. This was enormously popular, reprinted constantly for 80 years and much enlarged. Playford and his successors had a practical monopoly on the publication of dance manuals until 1711, and ceased publishing around 1728. During this period English country dances took a variety of forms including finite sets for two, three and four couples as well as circles and squares.
The country dance was introduced to the court of Louis XIV of France, where it became known as contredanse, and later to Germany and Italy. André Lorin, who visited the English court in the late 17th century, presented a manuscript of dances in the English manner to Louis XIV on his return to France. In 1706 Raoul Auger Feuillet published his Recüeil de Contredances, a collection of " contredanses anglaises" presented in a simplified form of Beauchamp-Feuillet notation and including some dances invented by the author as well as authentic English dances. This was subsequently translated into English by John Essex and published in England as For the Further Improvement of Dancing.Copies of these books may be found online: Recüeil de Contredances (1706) by Raoul Auger Feuillet, and For the further Improvement of Dancing (1710) by John Essex
By the 1720s the term contradanse had come to refer to longways sets divided into groups of three or two couples, which would remain normative until English country dance's eclipse. The earliest French works refer only to the longways form as contradanse, which allowed the false etymology of "a dance in which lines dance opposite one another". The square-set type also had its vogue in France and spread to much of Europe, Russia and North America during the later 18th century as the quadrille and the cotillion. These usually require a group of eight people, a couple along each side. "Les Lanciers", a descendant of the quadrille, and the "Eightsome Reel" are examples of this kind of dance. Dancing in square sets still survives in Ireland, under the name "set dancing" or "figure dancing".
For some time English publishers issued annual collections of these dances in popular pocket-books. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy all loved country dancing and put detailed descriptions into their novels. But the vogue for the waltz and the quadrille ousted the country dance from English ballrooms in the early 19th century, though Scottish country dance remained popular.
The contradanza, the Spanish and Spanish-American version of the French contradanse, became an internationally popular style of music and dance in the 18th century. The contradanza was popular in Spain and spread throughout Spanish America during the 18th century, where it took on folkloric forms that still exist in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Ecuador. In Cuba during the 19th century the contradanza became an important genre, the ancestor of danzon, mambo and cha cha cha. Haitians fleeing the Haitian Revolution of 1791 brought to the Cuban version a Creole influence and a new syncopation. The History of Latin American Dance by Jessica Martinez
The Engelska (Swedish for "English") or Danish Engelsk is a 16-bar Scandinavian folk dance in . Its name comes from the adoption in Scandinavia of English country dances and contra dances in the early 19th century. In Denmark the description "Engelsk" was used for both line and square dances of English origin.
The first collection of modern English country dances since the 1820s, Maggot Pie, was published in 1932, though only in the late 20th century did modern compositions become fully accepted. Reconstructions of historical dances and new compositions continue. Interpreters and composers of the 20th century include Douglas and Helen Kennedy, Pat Shaw, Tom Cook, Ken Sheffield, Charles Bolton, Michael Barraclough, Colin Hume, Gary Roodman, and Andrew Shaw.
The modern English country dance community in the United States consists primarily of liberal white professionals.
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