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Overview |
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Overview |
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Whether of ancient origin or invented by a Bohemian tavern girl upon hearing good news from her lover in the Austrian army, whether taking its name from the Czech for 'half', in recognition of the introductory half-step, or for 'Polish girl' in recognition of the revolution of 1831 - the polka proved unstoppable. In 1837 it was introduced into Prague and in March 1844 The Times' Paris correspondent was reporting that 'politics are for the moment suspended in public regard by the new and all-absorbing pursuit - the polka'. In April 1844 The Illustrated London News reported that 'The weathercock heads of the Parisians have been delighted always by any innovation, but they never imported anything more ridiculous or ungraceful than this Polka. It is a hybrid of Scotch Lilt, Irish Jig and Bohemian Waltz, and needs only to be seen once to be avoided forever.' With modification, however, it was soon regarded as 'elegant, graceful and fascinating in the extreme' and in 1845 Perrot and Robert wrote in their La Polka ensiegn¯e sans ma”tre, 'To dance the polka men and women must have hearts that beat high and strong. Tell me how you do the polka and I will tell you how you love.' No wonder teachers could hardly cope with the demand for instruction. The New Years' Eve polka here described would certainly set the blood rushing - with two turns of the woman in as many polka steps. 2.Take Eyes Make-Believe / The Pink Lawn / The Coin in the Glass The value of dancing was much debated in the American colonies. In 1796 one Philadelphia Minerva correspondent claimed 'Dancing was calculated to eradicate solid thought' obliging another to respond: 'Whatever captious cynics, in the delirium of their spleen, may allege to the contrary, dancing is incontestably an elegant and amiable accomplishment: it confers grace and dignity of carriage upon the female sexü it invigorates the constitution, enlivens the role of the cheek, and in its result operates as silent eloquence upon the hearts of men. Nature gives us limbs, and art teaches us to use them.' As late as 1833 etiquette author Madam Celnart reported a woman banished from church because she permitted dancing in her house - though the minister did not 'find it inconsistent with the gospel of Christ for her to carry on a distillery of spirits'. Eventually the artful use of limbs triumphed, and, with the introduction of swinging and improper formations, the contradance which the settlers had brought with them became even more intimate and social than it had been in 18th century England. This spirit flowed back into old-world contradancing. Believing that even more important than taking hands is to take eyes, D'Honger composed this contra to give dancers the opportunity to do just that, in fancy ways with the transitory opposites and a more usual way with one's partner. 3. The Secret Liaison Waltz The Fleeting Glance / The Careless Touch / The Stolen Kiss The Bordonians have a saying 'If you're not flirting, you're not dancing'. Flirting opportunities seem so built into the structure of Bordonian dances that it is hard to escape the conclusion that they reflect an underlying age-old culture of promiscuity. Whereas in a dance such as 'Juggling Partners' dancers are single while indulging in a series of overlapping romances, in this dance they are clearly married while flirting on the side. The balancing-and-swapping-places figure is similar to that in the Spanish waltz which was popular in ballrooms across Europe and the New World in the later half of the 19th century - but with an added twist. Once around the other side of the minor two-couple set, each dancer, rather than balancing and swapping places with their opposite a second time, steals a brief waltz with their opposite - a liaison which their partner doesn't notice because they are busy stealing a waltz with their opposite. The waltz finishes in progressed position facing one's partner a second time as if nothing happened and completing the balancing chain. In a subsequent two hand turn accusations fly about the other's shilly-shalling and the couple push and pull away to seek new opposites with whom neither can yet be accused of having been too familiar. Unfortunately, after getting to know the new opposites, the same thing happens and the couple feels compelled to move on. 4. Running the Gauntlet Difficult Times / Faithful Friends / Thick and Thin / Blind Luck The English mercenaries who arrived in the Valley of Earthly Delights towards the end of the Thirty Years War, having shelved their original plan to plunder and leave, tried to find a language in which to communicate with their hosts. German and French proved of some use, but all soon found that more useful still was dance. This dance is based on the one they devised to explained why they had left their former employer's camp. Having been falsely accused of lacking courage they had been forced, as was common in that day, to run a punishment course between two facing rows of soldiers thrashing at them with ropes and sticks. The Swedish called this course the 'gata-lopp' but English speakers confused this with 'gauntlet', from the old French 'gantelet', or glove, the taking off and picking up of which had since, Medieval times, represented the offering and acceptance of a challenge. The mercenaries' original dance had couples 'running the gauntlet' from only one end, but the next night, to show that they were prepared to stick by their English friends and share their trials, the Bordonians replied with this modified two-ended version of the dance. As the dance and the titles of the accompanying tunes make clear, by co-operating people can walk head on through some hazards and, perhaps even more bravely, reverse blindly through others. 5. That Broad Road Amorous Smiles / Wanton Compliments / Unchaste Kisses / Scurrilous Songs This dance dates back to the 17th century when some English mercenaries serving on various sides in the Thirty Years War first wandered in search of provisions and plunder into the land of the Bordonians. As already noted, welcomed to a feast and an evening trading dances they ended up never returning to home and over the next century or two dance in the 'Valley of Earthly Delights' assumed a decidedly English character. Not only did those first English settlers know enough about country dance to fascinate the Bordonians with the genres possibilities, they appear also to have been aware of the criticisms of dance being made by puritans at home. Here in the idyllic isolation of their new homeland they were happy to parody such critics. The titles of this dance and these tunes, are taken from William Prynne's 1632 Histriomastix: 'Dancing for the most part is attended with many amorous smiles, wanton compliments, unchaste kisses, scurrilous songs and sonnets, effeminate music, lust provoking attire, ridiculous love pranks, all of which savour only of sensuality, of raging fleshly lusts. ü Dancing serves no necessary use, no profitable, laudable, or pious end at all. ü The way to heaven is too steep, too narrow for men to dance. No way is large or smooth enough for capering roisters or for skipping, jumping, dancing dames but that broad, beaten pleasant road that leads to Hell'. 6.Making the Bed The Pleasure Garden / Heady Scents / Welcome Rain This dance combines the western European bourr¯e step with a fancy central European swing hold. Although the people from Dudelsac see in the dance the turning of a mattress, spreading of clean sheets, fluffing of pillows and the grappling of lovers, Nenjira elders have a much more plausible explanation for the dance's imagery. Bordonians have for centuries been keen edible gardeners. They even included edible plants in their ornamental gardens, either side of Moorish water features, surrounding Renaissance-style herb lawns and in between decorative plants. A 'pleasance', no less than any other patch of dirt in their valley, was ground to be worked. In this dance even the ground beneath the dancers' feet becomes a garden bed to be tilled and tended. Dancers turn the soil over and back, stomp to awaken the earth and wheel this way and that to sow seed. In winter, spring and summer the dance is performed around a root of vine, sprig of almond blossom, head of lettuce, punnet of strawberries, pod of peas, wreath of olive leaves, tower of pumpkins or seed of any other fruit or vegetable which they wish to honour and encourage. It is in autumn, however, that Bordonians throw themselves into the dance with an almost religious fervour - placing at the point of reverence the almost invisible spore of a particularly highly appreciated local fungus. 7. The Battering Ram The Old Walled Town / The Cart beneath the Steps / Panic on the Cobblestones / The Scythians Within Whereas most longways dances in other traditions start at one end only, most in the Bordonian start at both simultaneously. So it is with this particular dance in which the people of Dudelsac see the horror of a seige. The weaving of the men and women represents attempts by those outside and in to undermine and counter undermine while the galoping mimes the ramming which finally forces the gates on opposite sides of the town to admit the enemy. The tunes they say follow the same story - from the peace in the first to the agitation in the second, the frenzy in the third and the terror in the fourth. They identify the 'old walled town' as their ancient capital of Terpsichorea and the Scythians with any of numerous people from the east - the Turks, Hungarians or Russians all at various times having knocked on Bordonian portals. A very different interpretation is offered by some elderly Nenjira folk who detect behind this seige-like imagery the subtler symbolism of the struggle within all individuals for self-understanding, as well as the struggle of the Bordonians as a whole with the question of their national identity. Lying as their land does across the great religious and cultural fault-lines of Europe, Bordonians often feel torn between a very real affinity with the garden-tending red-roofed west and a strong romantic affinity with the horse-riding pennant-flying east. 8. The Near-Miss Galop Azaz the Unabridged / The Mathemagician / Sweet Rhyme / Pure Reason The more the horrors of the battle which it commemorates recede into the past the more the Bordonians are able to enjoy this thrilling dance. In 1814, after the Russian campaign, a new alignment of forces drew up for the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of the Nations. As the fighting took place not far from the Valley of Earthly Delights, finally rid Central Europe of Napoleon and ushered in some decades of peace, it was well remembered by Bordonians twenty five years later when Jan D'Honger, at the height of the galoping and polka craze, gave dancers this opportunity to don imaginary hussar coats and charge each other. The 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s represent the Austrians, Prussians, Russians and Swedes while the 5s, 6s, 7s and 8s the French, RheinlÌnders, Bavarians and Poles. Did Jan D'Honger, however, simply adapt a dance Egan Hrodnj is believed to have written to commemorate eight different battles in the long free-for-all that was the Thirty Years War - the 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s being the Austrians, Bavarians, Spanish and Eclesiastic Princes of Germany, and the 5s, 6s, 7s and 8s the Danes, Swedes, French and Protestant Princes of Germany? Was Hrodnj's dance in turn based on an earlier dance ... and that one on a still earlier one? Has war been so common in that part of the world that nothing changes but the combatants' names? 9. The Full-Moon Quadrille Autumn Gold / Aslin's Waltz This polite early-19th century quadrille evolved out of a much earlier wedding tradition which involved gathering in the middle of the bride's village - always on the evening of a full-moon so celebrations could go late and guests find their way safely home. The bridal couple would dance over to greet couples as they arrived, then, to signal the commencement of the merriment, would advance to the centre, retire and wheel as a couple. Everyone else would do like-wise then the men, with the women on their arm, all converge on a grand mill. On a call from the staff-wielding master-of-ceremonies the couples would wheel about so the women could lead a mill back the other way, and then upon another call, all would take and turn their partners. For such weddings, the bride would wear an elaborately embroidered dress and tall cylindrical satin-covered hat, both specially made for the occasion and hopefully much commented upon during the festivities. All the other women would wear colourful skirts, decorative pendants and an impressive scarf and the men a tailed suit, wide sash and tall top hat. Though great care is taken to maintain the authenticity of all these items of traditional dress, it is an observable fact that most of them, though once everyday wear, have so increased in size over the years that they are now too impractical to even be worn for the whole of an evening. 10. The Wrong-Foot Polka Farmyard on the Doorstep / Harlequins in the Chook Run / Bantams in the Rabbit Hutch / Fantails in the Dunny House This dance, along with 'Bodice and Doublet' is in a form rare on the continent - the triple minor longways. In 18th century England this was among the most popular dance forms combining as it did the three couple set found to be so satisfying in many early Playford dances and the progression found to be so social in the longways duple minor. The form is still used in New England in America and persists in a truncated form in Scottish 4 couple sets in which only 3 couples are dancing at any one time. Adding to the British flavour of the dance is the sheepskin hey - a weaving figure found in the 17th century English dance 'Picking of Sticks' and no where else, and these bouncy jigs - a rhythm very common in 17th century England. These tunes are traditionally carried on the bagpipes, the instrument favoured by shepherds across Europe - indeed, an instrument which developed in one form or another where ever folk raised livestock and used animal skins as vessels. Not surprisingly, the tunes and dance have a very pastoral theme, the former telling of an impending storm and the latter telling of the difficulties trying to pen a flock of sheep - one wayward one always leading the rest off in an unintended direction. In such circumstances it is not the shepherd trialling the sheep but the sheep trying and trialling the shepherd. 11. Riverbank Ramble Amy's Amble / Skipping Stones Here is another dance which goes back to the 'ReinlÌnder', a dance indigenous to German-speaking lands and characterised by a change step or chass¯e to the side or on a forward diagonal (not unlike the double of renaissance branles and basse dans.) and an interlacing of arms. Its earlier origins are unclear and those arguing that it evolved out of a form of sympathetic magic where hunters imitate in dance the movements of the animals they wish to capture, have failed to identify an animal with a chass¯e for a gait. The dance was known in 16th century England as the 'almayn' or 'alman' and a century later, after the annexation of Alsace, was being danced in the court of Louiz XIV. In the 19th century the dance became known as the Schottische and hundreds of versions were danced across Western Europe. Indeed, the ubiquitous Barn Dance is a kind of schottische, having originally been called the 'military schottische' but soon taking a new name from the tune which popularised it, 'Dancing in the Barn'. Urban society, at the same time as cultivating sophistication, appears always to yearn for a degree of naturalism and connection with rural life. This same phenomenon may even be behind D'Honger naming this schottische and its accompanying tunes after the walks he used to take with his daughter Amy down by the river below his wife's herb shop. 12. The Labyrinth Riddle in the Hedges / The Branched Way / A Thorny Dilemma / Which Rose Arbour? Next to dancing, the most popular pastime in the Valley of Earthly Delights was gardening and, as with their dancing, the more cleverly interlaced the design the more highly it was regarded. The passion reached a zenith with the 18th century maze craze. Although no maze from that period survives intact, on most strolls across Bordonian countryside a walker will come across the prickly remains of at least one. This dance describes an infamous series of garden mazes, each of which contained, besides the usually frustrating false leads and dead ends, two successive pairs of two rose arbours. A wrong decision at either juncture would send the visitor back to the beginning. Two correct choices and the successful negotiation of the other hazards, would release the visitor into the next maze. It is no coincidence that each maze has 4 arches, that there were 8 gardens in the series and that 16 correct decisions were need to reach the end. Multiples of 4 were auspicious in Bordonia. Most dances consist of 64 walking steps or 32 fancier ones, divisible into 8 or 4 step figures. Most tunes consisted of 32 bars - a 4 bar melodic question being followed by a reply, the whole then being repeated before moving on to another 4 bar melody, its reply and the repetition. The Bordonians believed human conversation to have been an off-shoot of dance and music. 13. The Courtship Polka The Girl in Green / Princess Serena / The Dancing Angel0 The ballroom suitability of the rustic polka was greatly debated in France and England. Some were pleased to report changes so that 'There is no stamping of heels or toe, or kicking of legs in sharp angles forward. This may do very well at the threshold of a Bohemian auberge, but it is inadmissible in the salons of Paris and London'. Others felt that masters such as Cellarius were making too many changes: 'if the Polka were simply a stage dance; then the more choreographic problems, cyclopean strides and tours-de-force it could introduce, the better. But as the Polka is destined to be danced in ballrooms, I cannot see why, instead of retaining its national simplicity and original grace, we should rack our brains to transform it into a kind of convulsion, no less dangerous to the joints of the performer, than to the sensitive parts of the spectator'. In Bordonia there was no dilemma. Accessible variants could be captured in easily remembered sequences without forfeiting the spirit of the dance. In this sequence three different heel and toe figures are used to bring a couple from an arms length greeting to conversational intimacy, a travelling figure used for their first outing and a turning one with a cross-the-heart hold for their first giddy moment. The tunes were dedicated to Jan D'Honger's daughter Amy Serena, who would put on a green dress when she wanted to dance like an angel. 14. Boots and Blades Mazurka Fresh Air Fun / Splashing in Mud / Skating on Ice Sometime in the 16th century a very ancient Mazovian triple time choral dance gave birth to a hopping and stomping couples dance. In the 17th century this new dance, know as the 'Mazurka', spread to the rest of Poland and began penetrating neighbouring lands. In Scandinavia it turned into an entirely new family of folk dances known as the 'Polska'. Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland introduced the dance to the courts of Germany in the early 18th century and by the late 18th century it was being danced in Paris ballrooms. Before long it was the rage from England to Russia, Sweden to Slovenia. Cellarius, in his 1847 La Danse des Salons, said that unlike other dances, the Mazurka 'has no rule but taste and the peculiar fancy of everyone, the performer being, so to speak, his own master. Only one part of the Mazurka can be taught; the rest is invented, is extemporised in the excitement of execution.' Such a spirited dance did not escape the attention of the Bordonians for long and though they had little difficulty dancing it in the 'Polish' mode, their interest in choreography led them into trying to capture particularly pleasing combinations of variations in sequences. The sequence here described combines folk running and stomping steps with ballroom gliding and cutting steps, an image of shaking mud of boots with one of skating on ice. 15. The Purple Tulip Drama A-Foot / Miming Desires / On Polished Boards This dance captures the drama, stealth and suspense of horticultural espionage - one of the few ways over the last 400 years that the reclusive Bordonians have been engaged with the rest of the world. Bordonians' love of dance has only been matched by their love of plants and many an itinerant Bordonian dance teacher was also a clandestine plant collector. Tulipomania and the revolution in gardening which followed the introduction of hundreds of new species from the Levant in the mid-16th century would not have been possible but for the dance-links Bordonians had forged from the Hague to Constantinople. Over the next century, where this network left off, the smuggling expertise of increasingly professional Bordonian plant hunters took over, helping to introduce many more species from Asia and America. Indeed, the Valley of Earthly Delights might not have survived the Napoleonic wars so unscathed but that the Emperess Josephine, keen to protect the sources contributing to her Malmaison collection, had provided many leading Bordonians with property immunity documents. When dancing this dance in autumn men and women will often hang small nets of bulbs from their belts or stick plant cuttings in their hair. When dancing it in spring, they may pin a beautiful flower to their vest, or clench the stem of a prized rose or tulip between their teeth. 16. The Sweetheart Quadrille Tender Words / Farewell Waltz This dance makes use of a cosy wrap-up or 'sweetheart' figure and tells the story of lovers who meet, promenade then part. After dancing with all the others on offer, the lovers find themselves thrown back together and, taking each other in their arms, they share a waltz. For good or for bad, the cycle of togetherness and separation begins again and is repeated till all return to original partner. Older Dudelsac folk say that say this cycle cannot be argument free and believe they can hear the lovers quarrelling in the tunes - tunes which they claim the original composer, a still remembered Dudelsac piper, called 'Hurtful Words' and 'The Goodriddance Waltz'. The people of Nenjira equally clearly hear in the tunes a tender conversation between lovers who are reluctantly forced to say farewell. As dancers much prefer to waltz with romance rather than argument in mind, the titles which support the romantic Nenjira image, are increasingly used even by those in Dudelsac who say they knew the composer and his idiosyncratic way. Although some Nenjira villagers accuse these Dudelsac folk of fabricating stories, others are more conciliatory, suggesting that an individual with one set of images and names in mind may perhaps be led by the mischievous muse to create something which is bound to give rise to another set of images and names. An original intention is often at best an irrelevant curiosity.
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