Hi Ken,

              The oldest dance I do is Trenchmore – goes back to at least 1551.  See http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/Trenchmore.html

              Great if your dancers like to Strip the Willow.

              Horse’s Branle (1589) is great fun too - https://www.webfeet.org/eceilidh/dances/horses-branle.html

              I can call these type of dances for nearly any group in England as we don’t have the genre divides that you do in America.

              When I have called in the USA I have often thrown in different formations and the dancers seem to have enjoyed it. It all depends on what your dancers expect and how much they are prepared to experiment.  There are lots of great contra dance style dances in other formations – see http://contrafusion.co.uk/Formations.html

              The 17th and 18th century English dances (e.g. Playford and those who followed) were also known as contra dances and even occasionally had First Couples Improper, e.g. The King of Poland (1698): “First Man on his Woman’s fide” (side).

              You may well be able to find some early dances that would go down well with a contra crowd.  Just change some of the Turns into Swings – yes they did Swings in those days.  From the pre-1650 Lovelace Manuscript: “Trenchmore: every man shall turne his mayde as long as he please, on way, and then backe agayine, the other way; then all men and woemen turne round as before as fast as they can” – sounds like a Swing to me!

              The earliest dances in Cracking Chestnuts are Money Musk (1785) and The Young Widow (1788) – George Washington’s time!

            Happy dancing,

                   John                      

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent