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Overview |
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Many late 19th century couples dances persisted into the 20th century, with new waltzes evolving (e.g. the slower Boston Waltz and the Hesitation waltz involving the ocassional single step to three beats), new polka's fashioned, new varsovienna turns devised and even new schottisches being invented (e.g. the Scotis espanol or 'Spanish Schottische', popular for a short time on the continent after the first world war). By and large, however, the age of these couples dances was over. Freed from the constraints of the tight corsets, long skirts and puffed sleeves, a new generation of dancers started to strut and sway to new rhythms. The two-step was followed by the one-step and such ragtime novelties as 'the Turkey Trot', 'Bunny Hug', and 'Grizzly Bear'. These dances in turn were followed by ballroom versions of the South American tango and maxixe, and then after World War I by the Charleston, Fox Trot and Lindy Hop. People did not need dance manual to learn these dances. They could learn from viewing of a Hollywood movie, practice to a phonograph record or radio broadcast, and/or simply improvised on the spot. For those wanting to learn the most elegant variations there were always dance classes. The great era of dance manuals came to an end, though people such as the exhibition dancers Irene and Vernon Castles tried to bring some civility back into the ballroom with chapters in their own manuals on 'Grace and Elegance', 'Proper Dancing' 'Costumes for Women' and 'Proper dance music'.
In the first decades of the 20th century, while couples dancing was still going strong (albeit it in different forms), quadrilles such as the Lancers surviving, and contras and square dance alive and well in parts of America, English Country Dance was literarily on its last legs. The ethnomusicologist Cecil Sharp collected extant country dances from English villages, studied the old dance books, offered fresh versions of the figures, founded a country dance societies in England and provided the impetus for the founding of a similar society in the United States where he went in his teens to collect dances. He and his followers brought country dance back into the English cities and into English schools and inspired others in America to do likewise- square dance and contras emerging from their hiding places (the former soon turned into a whole club movement and the later into a metropolitan sub-culture).
It might also be observed that some of the same people who were involved with collecting folk dances at this time were also collecting in the field Christmas carols. The commonly known repertoire of carols expanded still further in the later half of the 20th century with the inclusion of more secular songs of seasonal good-will, but that is all that needs be said on this subject here!
In the 1950s, 60s and 70s country dance benefited from the general folk revival. More authentic reconstructions of the already known historic material were being arrived at, new historic material was being unearthed and presented, and many new dances written (e.g. by Pat Shaw). In Australia 'Bush Dancing' came into being, as a city-based attempt to capture what was believed to be the spirit of traditional 'woolshed' dancing. Although the quadrilles and couples dances which would have been part of such dances did later get introduced to the scene as collectors and researchers recovered them, the dance repertoire was initial an amalgam of old folk dances kept alive through exhibition at Caledonian and Hiberian gatherings, and dances taken from the recently published British Community Dance Manuals.
The English country dance scene, American Contra scene and Australian bushdance scene which had evolved by the end of the 20th century, although sharing many features in common, differed in many respects. The differences may be very roughly characterised as follows:
Although all featured live music, in the US the tunes tended to be medleys chosen by the band, in England dances more often went to specific tunes, and in Australia it was a bit of both.
In America nearly all the set dances were longways duple or triple minor (with perhaps the odd circle mixer) and the only couples dances likely to be programmed was a free waltz or Scandinavian Hambo. In England the set dances were likely to be in a wide range of formations and styles, but with hardly a wiff of a couples dance. In Australian bush dancing there was likely to be a wide range of formations - including simple circles, Sicilian circles, quadrilles (remnants or revivals of old ballroom quadrilles or old Irish sets) and longways sets danced from top or top and bottom (not duple or triple minor). There would also be some couples dances which most people assumed represented colonial period dancing, but were mostly early 20th century sequences.
The American contra dances had a relatively limited repertoire of figures but nearly everyone was dancing all the time and figures flowed into each other much better than in England or Australia, where the range of figures was greater but the transitions between figures often uninspiring.
The two hand turn so common in English Country dancing was hardly found at all in either American contra dancing - which favoured the ballroom-hold swing, or in Australian bushdancing which favoured the cross-hand swing.
You were more likely to promenade with inside hand (or right in right) in an English country dance, in a waist-shoulder hold in an American contra and in a right-in-right left-in-left over-the-shoulder hold in an Australian bushdance.
While the English and Australians tended to give hands while doing rights and lefts, the Americans in the Contra scene will often simply pass shoulders and wheel in the waist-shoulder hold. While contras and English country dancing in America was danced primarily with a walk step, country dancing in England continued to involve slip steps or skipping and in its ceilidh form a skip-change, step-hop, rants, and polka step as well. Most Australian bushdancing on the other hand, though often walked by the novice, were danced by regulars with a Scottish travelling step (and when appropriate with an Irish reel step, or a travelling polka or waltz step).
While in English (and Scottish) Country Dancing dancers might give hands by taking hold of the others fingers (whether to turn or star), in most instances in an American contras and Australian bushdance, to turn another hands might be offered vertically, thumbs linked and elbows pointing down.
All of the above variants make sense in their own traditions but towards the end of the century more and more dances were crossing between the traditions and the most effective style for the dance did not always go with the figures (beginners not knowing anything other style than what they were used to and experienced dancers reluctant to relinquish the favourite elements of their own tradition). In Australia, for example, dancers would often use the step-change Scottish travelling steps stripping the willow to a slip-jig or dancing a recently introduced American contra when a walked step might walk better and use cross-hand promenade and swing holds when a contra style waist-shoulder or English open hand holds might afford better transitions into or out of the following or preceding circle or forward and back in line. All three traditions, however, were generally enriched by the contact between them. None had ever been 'pure' to start with (what tradition has been) and now inside all three traditions there were people writing rewarding flowing dances using elements from more than one of the 'starting' traditions.
By the end of the 20th century the communication gap which had opened up in the early 19th century between the country dance scenes separated by oceans had began to close and it was leading not to an homogenisation but to an enrichment. A similar enrichment had started among devotees of couples dances. Spreading knowledge of European folk couples dances and research into 19th century ballroom couples dance variants was helping dancers rediscover the spirit of improvisation implicit in earlier couples dance crazes - as reluctant as many in the country dance scene might have been to offer opportunities for unsequenced or newly-sequenced couples dance opportunities.
The present authors' work The Lost Dances of Earthly Delights and the Christmas Carol Dance Book, which appeared in the years 2000 and 2002 respectively, and which are overviewed and reviewed on the CDs and Books page, are example of works in which dances, both set and couples, have been crafted in a wide variety of styles - indeed, sometimes consciously in more than one style simultaneously - to create many refreshing additions to the corpus of traditional social dance. The dance descriptions from the first of the above named books are reproduced on The Lost Dances page and the historical frame in which they are presented (for those interested in a chapter of dance history not dealt with above!) is reproduced on The Bordonians page.
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