Historical Background

 

The so-called English Country Dances are England’s great contribution to Western European dance. In France there was the Baroque, which centred on Versailles. Baroque dance is wonderful – the nobles danced superb minuets and sarabands. They were introduced to England but didn’t take off on the same way. Because Versailles was the epicentre of French society, everyone across France copied what went on there. In England they went a different route, very much to do with Englishmen in their wonderful houses on their country estates. Out of that came their fondness for what is called the English Country Dance.

 

Now, this is a very confusing term because when one says “country dance” one thinks of the village green with people leaping about with bells and ribbons, but in fact it was very popular at court and owes much of its development to its popularity there. When Queen Elizabeth I went on her grand progresses around the country, she saw villagers dancing on village greens and because she liked the look of the dances she introduced them at her court. Then the dancing masters made up further dances, which were purely court dances. So that is where the root lies of what is now called the Old Country Dance.

 

What became known as the New Country Dance was developed at court at the time of the Restoration of the Monarchy and came to its full flowering towards the end of the seventeenth century and throughout the eighteenth century. We know that both King Charles I and King Charles II danced these new figures, which formed beautiful spatial patterns on the floor. This patterning really interested people and often held special meanings for them. Although they appear quite complicated, one has to remember that dancing was absolutely essential to people’s existence – at that time everybody danced. There were many dancing masters who gave classes. Quite often people had individual, private dancing lessons at home. There’s a lovely story in Samuel Pepys’s diary; he gets quite flustered because his wife’s dancing master visits very, very often. He becomes so suspicious that after one dancing lesson, he races up to the bed to feel if it’s warm!

 

(text by Jane Gibson)

 

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Related pages:

 

• About the NVS
• What is English Country Dancing?