HISTORY: when did contras and English styles diverge?
Phil Katz
> Folks --
>
> I'm aware that the way dances are done nowadays may not have very much
to do
> with how they were done when they were first popular. (This is actually
fine
> with me, so long as radical reinterpretations of historical dance don't
claim
> to be authentic. [I enjoy Playford dances with modern styling more than
with
> baroque steps, for example.])
>
> I've read the Jim Morrison, Kate Keller & Ralph Sweet, and Ralph Page
> bicentennial early American dance books without getting answers to these
> questions.
>
> When something like "The Young Widow" (an extremely-cool Revolution-era
dance
> publicized by Jim Morrison) is done (at least around here), it's done
with
> English styling, by which I mean handshake stars, no assisted casts, no
> courtesy turn on a half right and left, skipping in addition to a dance
walk,
> and a balance which doesn't make a big thump on the floor. (More on
that
> balance later.)
>
____snip___
>
> Fourth: Speaking of "The Young Widow", which I called at Mendocino
> camp's Campers' Night last month, it is generally done around here with
> a step swing balance.
>
> (As a reminder: triple minor, proper. 1s and 2s handshake star right
and left,
> skipping. 1s down the center, turn as a couple, come back skipping,
unassisted
> cast off into middle place, improper (2s move up). In lines of three at
the
> sides, set or balance right and left twice, circle six halfway, 1s step
back,
> 2s and 3s face opposites, set or balance right and left twice, two
changes of
> rights and lefts. Unusual progression.)
>
> As I say, the balance done here in this dance is generally step on one
foot,
> then swing the other foot over and across; repeat on other foot.
Snip
>
For an intuitive historical thrill (though not a scholarly accurate one),
try the following for The Young Widow.
Teach it as above with the kick balances or sets and handshake stars; have
your band play as at a "normal" English dance. Then "lead" your dancers
with the music; gradually have the band put more drive and lift into the
tune, finally toward the end of the dance letting your backup player play
standard New England boom-chucks. If the dancers are aware of music/dance
styling differences between historical English and contras, and
particularly if you have said that this dance is from right on the edge
between English and Yankee tradition, what you will first begin to hear,
as the music begins to change, is the sound of dancers' heels starting to
hit the ground in the middle of the kick balances or the pas de bas sets.
Then some brave souls (2's) will start doing old-fashioned New England
shoulder-to-shoulder casts instead of leaving the 1's to cast around
unassisted and 2's move up. Finally as the crowd gets more boistrous, and
'most everyone is "hitting" their balances (about the time you start
hearing boom-chucks), some folks at least will explicitly acknowledge what
is happening and finish "taking it home" by doing the wrist-grip stars as
well.
I do not remember where I have experienced this; possibly at the Seattle
English dance with Laurie Andres leading the Limeylanders (maybe on one of
Brad Foster's visits here), or maybe back east at RPLW or NEFFA. But I do
remember that "riding" the music from one era to another sent chills up
and down my spine. Kind of akin to dancing Trip to Tunbridge followed by
CJ.