On 6/28/2013 3:34 PM, Andrea Nettleton wrote:
I'm in Oxford with a group of GA Tech undergrads and the Prof who is teaching a
Jane Austen class has requested that I teach them a bunch of ECD from that era,
things that would really have been danced then. I don't have with me the
resources I had available in the states. I need a selection of maybe a dozen
dances, and a resource from which to give them interesting tidbits about
etiquette, flirtation, the circumstances of a ball such as chaperones, the
necessity for an introduction before inter gender conversation could occur,
etc. I want something as authentic as possible, but they are all newbies and I
want them to have fun. Recommendations most welcome. I have a fiddler and a
Barnes book, and notes for a few dances and any I can glean from the web,
unless one of my esteemed colleagues loans them to me. I'm confident about the
teaching part, it is more a matter of what to present.
Thanks
Andrea
I just send Andrea a big file of dance notes off-list. That file has
mid-1700s to early 1800s in it - probably too much, but I had it already
made up. For Jane Austen class it's probably more apropos to do
Austen's lifetime (1775-1817) than strictly Regency (1811-1820).
For extremely authentic you'd be teaching them to make up dances out of
building block figures. Many of the reconstructed Austen-era dances for
modern dancers have been tweaked; triple minors often became
three-couple sets. There's a number of 1740s or 1750s dance patterns
that are very much like c.1800 dance patterns.
Suggestions more closely focused on Austen's lifetime and general
accessiblity, as I think of them and not in the order I would present them
Haste to the Wedding (as a longways set, not Sicilian Circle)
Midnight Ramble
Young Widow
Marlbrouk Cotillion
Dover Pier
Trip to Tunbridge (contra corners, similar to Chorus Jig)
North Down Waltz
Long Odds (requires the ability to RH turn 1.5 in four bars, which may
be challenging)
Physical Snob
Prince William (crossover mirror hey _and_ contra corners!)
Rakes of Rochester
The Spaniard
The Bishop (gypsy is historically questionable)
Dover Pier
(If your fiddler doesn't like any of those tunes - and I hear "the
Bishop" can be a bear to play - it would be period practice to use the
figures with a different tune.)
Hope this helps!
-- Alan
