Improve your dancing and enjoy it more
Many people first encounter country dancing at a ceilidh or barn dance, perhaps at a wedding or other social event. In such cases the dancing is incidental to the socializing, and the fun comes from the occasion rather than the dancing, so if the standard of dancing isn’t very high it doesn’t really matter.
If you want to dance for its own sake, though, you will enjoy it much more if you learn how to do it better. Good dancing is not difficult, and it makes a huge difference. You will find that other people will enjoy dancing with you much more if you dance well, and as you improve you will discover the deep pleasure and satisfaction of dancing well with with other good dancers. Also, in country dancing you don’t just dance with your partner. Even if you keep the same partner all the time (which is not encouraged) you will still dance with all the other people in the set as well, so your dancing, good or bad, affects all those people. You owe it to others to dance as well as you can.
But don’t be discouraged if you don’t yet know how to dance well. You’ll still be welcome if you’re willing to learn. We dancers were all beginners once, and we are happy to welcome beginners and to help anyone who is learning to dance. Many good dancers were really terrible when they started. It may take a while to become a good dancer, but the effort is worth it and other dancers will be grateful. Here are some simple basic ideas to help you. These are just to get you started — there are many subtle aspects of dancing well that you will appreciate in due course.
First, a couple of general points. You should understand that in English country dance there isn’t a ‘correct’ way to do anything — it isn’t tightly regulated as for example Scottish country dancing is. If you want to do something differently, that’s alright as long as it doesn’t annoy or inconvenience other people. You should generally do things the conventional way at first, though — there’s probably a reason for it. In particular, the suggestions here are not just my personal views — they follow the accepted practice of good dancers and callers throughout England and elsewhere.
Secondly, if you go to a dance with your boyfriend or girlfriend, you probably want to dance together. As beginners, however, you will make much better progress if you split up and dance with more experienced partners most of the time. In any case, it’s the convention in many clubs not to dance with the same partner for more than a couple of dances in a row, and at the Round it’s usual to change partners after every dance.
Listen to the beat
Can you hear the beat of the music? If you’re a musician it will be second nature, but if you’re not it might not come naturally. If you can’t hear the beat you can’t dance well. In fact, if you can’t hear the beat you can’t really dance at all. However you can learn to hear it. Find a musical friend and ask them to play a dance track with a clear steady beat, and tap out the beat for you. Try to tap it out for yourself. If that’s easy, try a track with a less obvious beat. If you find it hard, you’ll need to practise with a variety of tracks until you get the idea. Some people do find it harder than others, but most people have an innate sense of rhythm and it’s just a matter of finding it.
Most country dance music is in duple time — two beats to a bar. (People often talk in terms of bars rather than beats, which can be confusing. A bar (or ‘measure’) is a group of beats, with extra emphasis on the first of the group.) Many dances are in triple time — three beats to a bar — and for some reason many people find it much harder to follow the beat of a triple-time tune, so this needs practice too. A few dance tunes have four beats to the bar, but that doesn't cause any extra difficulties.
Dance to the music
Once you can hear the beat, you’re ready to dance to it. The music isn’t just a pleasant noise that accompanies the dance; the music is the dance, and dance has been described as ‘music made visible’. The aim is to move with the music all the time — one step to each beat. You may not manage this at first, when you are likely to have enough trouble working out where you should be going, but try to keep in time with the music as much as you can. The music is typically structured in 8-bar phrases (16 beats or steps in duple time) and the elements of the dance fit into this structure. A star or circle for four people usually takes 8 steps to go once round; back-to-back (do-si-do) takes four steps out, four steps back, and so on. Initially it will help if you count the beats in your head, but you should soon be able to listen to the musical phrases and fit your movements to them without having to count. Listen to the music when you’re not moving, too, so that you’re ready when you need to move again, and you can even gently move your weight from foot to foot with the beat.
Learn the language
Many activities have their own private language, often using ordinary words with a specialised meaning, and country dancing has its own language too. Hugh Stewart’s ‘Elements of English Country Dance’ is a good guide to the technical jargon.
Dance with the other people in the set
Country dancing is social dancing — dancing with other people. They can help you and you can help them. If you don’t know where to go next, your partner or one of the other dancers in the set may be able to guide you. This will often be by fairly subtle body language, so you need to look for it. If you see that someone else looks lost, indicate where they should go, if you can. (But don’t ever push anyone physically.)
Shoes for dancing
Suitable shoes can make a big difference to the way you dance. People have been known to dance in hiking boots occasionally, as a joke, but it’s a joke because it’s so obviously unsuitable. It’s less obvious that trainers are not very good — they’re a bit clumsy and the soles can stick to the floor. The ideal is as near to bare feet as you are comfortable with — a light, flexible shoe with a sole that doesn’t slip too easily but doesn’t grip the floor either. Avoid high heels.
Dance on your toes
With decent shoes, it’s easier to follow another principle: dance on your toes. This doesn’t mean dancing on tip-toe, it’s just short-hand for keeping your weight on the balls of your feet. If you stand with your weight on your heels, it’s hard to get moving. Get your weight off your heels and onto the balls of your feet and it’s much easier to move when you need to.
Give weight
What does this mean? When you turn your partner by the right hand, you’re moving in a circle. It helps both you and your partner to get round if there’s a bit of tension in your joined arms. ‘Giving weight’ is the jargon term for providing that tension. The faster the turn, the more tension you need. Your arm needs to be somewhat bent at the elbow, and you need to link hands so that you can pull against each other. Don’t grip the other person’s hand — you both need to be able to detach easily at the end of the turn. In a star, don’t just rest your hand on top of the other hands — link hands with the person across the star from you, so that you can give weight. You often need to give weight in other situations. In a circle, for example, a bit of tension in your arms helps everyone to get round.
Don’t rely on the caller
At first you will need to listen to the caller to know where to go in the dance, but as you become familiar with the figures that make up the dances you will gradually be able to remember the pattern of the dance without relying on the caller. The caller may stop calling after a few turns of the dance, so that you can enjoy the dance and the music. The other dancers will usually remind you where to go if necessary, and you should eventually be able to help others in the same way.
Anticipation
Think about the next movement and be ready for it. If you’re standing still while others are moving, listen to the music, and move your weight onto the balls of your feet on the last beat before you’re due to move. When a right-hand star is followed by a left-hand star, turn on the last beat of the right-hand star, so that you’re ready to start the left-hand star on the first beat of the new phrase.
Spatial awareness
Spatial awareness is knowing where other people are even when you can’t see them. Driving on the motorway, you can know that there’s someone in your blind spot if they have disappeared from your rear-view mirror but haven’t yet appeared in front of you. In the dance, you need to be aware of what others are doing, even if you can’t see them, so that you can avoid crashing into them and so that they don’t have to break the flow of their movement to avoid crashing into you.
Eye contact
Make eye contact with other dancers, for example when you’re about to start a move together, or when you pass in a hey, or change places with each other. This is not an intense stare (though you may encounter that from some American dancers) — just a glance at each other. It can be an opportunity to flirt, or to reassure each other that you are about to do the right thing, or to seek or give help if either of you is unsure, but mostly it’s just an acknowledgement that you are dancing together. You might even smile at each other.
Make the dance flow
A good dance is designed to flow — each movement flows into the next. A good dancer will make the dance flow smoothly, without unnecessary stops and starts. Be aware of the timing of each movement. Don’t get to the end of a movement late, but don’t get there early either. The ideal is to arrive exactly at the right time to flow into the next movement. Listen to the music — the end of the movement usually coincides with the end of the musical phrase.
Steps
Many English country dances, as well as almost all contra dances, can be performed with a simple walking step. However, the following steps are also used.
- Setting
This is very simple: just step to your right, close your left foot next to your right, then step to your left and close your right foot next to your left. One beat for each movement, four beats in all. However, if you put your weight on your left foot on the second beat, you have to pick it up again immediately in order to step to the left, and this feels very awkward. One solution is to keep your weight on the right foot as you close your left foot to it. Another, which many people adopt, is to elaborate the movement a bit: right, close, right, left, close, left. Here the emphasis marks the beats, and the close comes between the beats. Do this on your toes, with a bit of bounce.
- Skip-change
The skip-change or double-step is commonly used with lively music. The movement is right, close, right, hop, left, close, left, hop, ... The emphasis marks the beats, so this means:
- step forward onto your right foot on beat 1
- bring your left foot up close to your right (but not past it)
- step forward onto your right foot again on beat 2
- and hop on your right foot
- step forward onto your left foot on beat 3
and so on. This will probably take a bit of practice — many people find it difficult at first. It is impossible to do it at all unless you have your weight forward on your toes. It’s worth persevering with it, though — it transforms the faster dances.
- Slip
This is the step used to dance sideways, for example in fast circles. It is just left, close, left, close, left, ... when moving to the left, and right, close, right, ... when moving to the right.
- Step-hop
Right, hop, left, hop, ..., usually to a much slower tempo than a normal reel or jig.
- 1-2-3-hop
Right, left, right, hop, left, right, left, hop, ...
- Rant
I’m not going to try to describe the rant step — it’s easier to understand it from a demonstration. Yes, this is a cop-out.
- Waltz
The country dance waltz step is rather different from the ballroom waltz. Usually it is just a forward movement in triple time (3 beats to the bar) with a fairly strong emphasis on the first beat of each bar: right, left, right, left, right, left, ... The first step of each bar is also rather longer than the others.
Note that many triple-time dances, including all dances from before 1800, are not waltzes, but have steps of equal length with little emphasis on the first beat of the bar.
The Swing
The swing (technically the ‘buzz swing’ or ‘pivot swing’) is hard to do well, and because you’re in a close ballroom hold any deficiencies are very obvious to your partner. Key points:
- Stand tall and don’t lean back or bend forward.
- The man’s right arm is the important one. The couple’s other three arms are just to assist stability. The man’s right hand should be flat on the middle of the woman’s back. The rule of thumb is that the thumb should be at about the level of the bra strap, but some women prefer it a bit lower.
- Don’t face your partner; face a bit to the left (over their right shoulder), with your right foot outside their right foot.
- Don’t bounce up and down; aim for a smooth movement.
- Your weight is mostly on the right foot, which should hit the floor on every beat. The left foot trails a bit behind, taking the weight only briefly between beats as you step forward with the right foot.
- If you’re the man, you control the swing. Make sure that it finishes in the right position at the right time. (Listen to the music!) The swing always finishes with the woman on the man's right. She often needs to change direction at the end of a swing, for example to go into a ladies’ chain or a forward-and-back, so be prepared to help her with that, by supporting her back with your right hand.
- If this is all too hard, a walk swing is OK — just walk round each other. But a fast buzz-swing with a good partner is much more fun.
Finally ...
Try asking other people whether there are ways you could improve. None of us is perfect, but it isn’t always obvious to ourselves what our faults are.
Enjoy your dancing!
Anthony Stone