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| Frequency | Weekly (September to May) |
| Time | 9.00 am on Monday |
| Duration | 90 minutes |
| Location | Abbot Hall Social Centre |
| Coordinator | Linda Wood |
The main forms of country dancing are: circle dancing, longways set, square set and couple dancing. The couple dance first appears in Bavaria in the late 18th century and rapidly spread around Europe. The most famous couple dances are also the names of time-signatures: waltz and polka. Circle dancing is known from classical times. By the time of John Playford's “The English Dancing Master” (1651) it was a dance for everyone. The English term “Country Dance” was adopted all across Europe.
The longways set was the most popular type of country dance in the first edition of Playford's book. A line of males faced a line of females for as many as will
. “Roger de Coverley” and “The Grand Old Duke of York” are among the most familiar examples of this kind of dance. By the 1820s it was considered old-fashioned.
We now have a repertoire of 20 plus dances. Pat Gordon is our teacher with Tony Miley as stand in teacher.
July 2010
As you can see from the top of the page Jackie has relinquished her role as co-ordinator and I have taken her place – a hard act to follow.
Our last term continued with vim and vigour with Pat Gordon as our teacher and Tony Miley as her deputy. On Norwegian National Day Tony introduced us to some of their national dances which proved to be great fun with our feet getting in a total muddle at times but we always got there in the end.
February 2010
We usually have 25 members attending our class. Great fun and exercise. As one of our dancers said “Where else could you have an hour and a half of fun for 70p?”
Pat Gordon continues as our teacher with Tony Miley as her deputy. We can still get in a muddle!! But successfully negotiated The Yellow Rose of Texas which is really tricky!
We finish on 31 May and start next term on 13 September.
Jackie Hinton
November 2009
Next term’s meetings start on 4th January, end on 22nd March then restart on 12th April.
We started in September with 11 new members, all of whom are very enthusiastic. Unfortunately one of our founder members Delia King died after an operation. She was a warm friendly lady always with a smile and concern for others. She will be greatly missed but we remember her when dancing.
Pat Gordon is our hardworking teacher with Tony Miley as her deputy. We have been learning some new dances with wonderful exotic names “Four Jolly Sheepkins”, “Sicilian Windmill” and “Fivepenny Bit”. We start the week in a fun way with much laughter and good humoured banter.
New members need not have any country dancing experience to join us.
J Hinton