Video: English Country Dance: An Introduction
This 40-minute video introduces English Country Dancing. It teaches some of the basic moves found in many English Country dances; explains the structure of the dance; and entertains you with information about the history and practice of English country dancing.
Watch the video
Download a PDF of additional notes and an index to the video
Henry Morgenstein is the caller and the narrator (voiceover). Jacqui Morgenstein did the camera work, mostly using a Canon digital SLR recording in full HD.
Most of the footage was shot in a great dance studio in Traverse City, Michigan with friends who dance in our back room every week. But two of the dances we teach were in Emmanuel College, Cambridge UK and there are clips from Dartington Hall (also UK) and Pinewoods Camp in Massachusetts. Many of the dances were done to recorded CDs from the great ECD band Bare Necessities. The two in Cambridge were to live music by Notorious (Eden MacAdam-Somer and Larry Unger). None of the video was scripted, so all the incidents just happened as the result of dancers enjoying themselves.
In order to make this as unintimidating as possible to newcomers, we chose to film dancers who are simply people enjoying themselves. We feel that perfect dancing, while admittedly beautiful to watch, may well deter a newcomer from “giving it a go.” The fact that some mistakes are made and people recover with good humor should help to give the message that you don’t have to be perfect to do this.
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.