I really don't have time to get sucked into an interesting philosophical
discussion today, but it's catnip for
me and I can't resist.
I think we've got two different categories that have the same name (or at least
the same informal name).
Levi Jackson situation:
- It was written for ECD audiences with a tune of its own, by an Englishman,
and it has been a popular and beloved
dance at many American ECD dances for many years. (When I got to the Bay Area
in 1985 it was already something that the band could just play and regulars
would form up and do.)
- It was deliberately written in American Contra style (as was "Long Pond",
where Shaw even says so) at a time when that style was very different from
today, and it was written specifically for a specific American location.
- It's been done successfully at some Contra dance events.
Some category questions (and my preliminary answers):
- Is it an "English" dance? Yes, an Englishman wrote it. (Are Colin Hume's
square dances, intentionally written as American squares, English dances? Yes,
an Englishman wrote it. But also no, not written to be an English country
dance.) (But also Americans, Canadians, Belgians write "English" dances in
the sense of being intended to fit into
that tradition.)
- Is it an "English country dance"? It is done at English country dances in
the US and England, so apparently a lot of people think so, and while it
definitely fits into the UK ECD parameters (where they do what we'd call
chestnut contras and trad dances with swings as well as what Americans would
recognize as modern ECD all just mixed together) and with all kinds of
formations? The fact of it using square and contra dance moves doesn't
disqualify a dance from being ECD. (I'm unaware of any argument that "Winter
Dreams Waltz", which has stuff like pass through and courtesy turn into a left
hand star, isn't an ECD.)
- Is it a contra dance? Well, I guess, if it's being done at contra dances
(and you should youtube up the Berea dancers performing it, because the way
they do it awesome.), uses contra dance figures, etc. It's in an unusual
formation for contra but if triplets are contras and circle mixers are contras
then LJR can be a costume. (It having been designed for a specific tune is
outside the usual modern contra categories, but you can do Wizard's Walk to
other tunes - it's a contra for sure.)
- Can something be both an English country dance and a contra dance? (I think
in England, at least, it can be, but the attitude and styling with which contra
is done at an English dance club isn't the same as at a dedicated contra
series).
So I think what we've got is that dances have a cloud of attributes around them
- belongs to this category and that category and that category - rather than
*essentially* being a thing even if intended to be the thing - and the useful
question for the caller isn't "Is it an X" but "will it work at the kind of
dance I'm programming" - which varies between venues and also on whether the
caller can put it across.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 3:26 PM
To: 'Contra Callers'
Subject: [Callers] Re: [External] Fw: Need help fitting to a tune
Hi all,
Seth asked “Is "Levi Jackson Rag" an English Dance?”.
The answer is very simple. It was written by an English man so,
yes, it is an English dance!
Modern American ECD is a small subset of English country dancing!
See also: http://contrafusion.co.uk/EnglishAmerican.html
I have asked many times for the American ECD callers to define
exactly what American ECD is, but no-one has been able to give an answer.
Basically because it is the subset of dances that a particular group want to
use in their community at a particular time.
The best definition I could come up with is the one I put in
Wikipedia: “While English Folk Dance Clubs generally embrace all types of
country dance, American English Country Dance (ECD) groups tend to exclude
modern contra dances and square dances.” I have been to American ECD sessions
where a wider range of dances are used, and if you look through some of the
groups’ archives you will find a much wider range of dances fifty years ago.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940
574
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs
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