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The pages under this chapter heading carry reconstructions/descriptions by myself, John Garden, of some historic dances in the wonderful flowing 400 year old tradition of English Country Dance. The first page focuses on dances from varous editions of John Playford's The English Danicng Master. The second page is devoted to the dances used in the BBC's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice. The third page is a repository for notes on historic English Country Dances which are neither found in the Playford manuals or danced in Pride and Prejudice. The emphasis on these pages, as on other pages on this web site, is to contribute to our dance and music heritage, so I've mostly included dances to the understanding of which I think I have something to offer. There are also, however, instructions to some straightforward dances which I have lead over the years and for which people have requested a record. To link my interpretation as closely as possible to the original instructions, I've made my instructions accomodated within them in bold font the words of the original instructions.
For nearly 100 other dances in the English Country Dance (ECD) style see the pages grouped under Lost Dances, Xmas Dances and Other Dances (those in the last mentioned 'chapter', for example, include a dance I wrote by request to go to a Handel song used in the film Emma). For a catalogue of dances by style, and thus an index of all those dances on this site in the ECD style (and pointers to the appropriate page or collection) see the Dance Index. If it was the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice that brought you to this page and you would like to read about some other dances that featured in movies (e.g. The Sound of Music Laendler) go to the page on Movie choreographies under Other Dances. For those readers who would like to attend a Regency Ball in our company see our Upcoming events pages. For anyone interested in the garments worn for these dances, see Aylwen's Regency Costume pages.
