27 Apr
2013
27 Apr
'13
7:44 p.m.
Rhodri Davies and I are both running Zesty Playford workshops at
Eastbourne Folk Festival in a weeks' time. I've written a set of
notes, some of which I intend to use then, and would welcome feedback
either through the list or direct to me.
http://www.colinhume.com/dezesty.htm
Colin Hume
27 Apr
27 Apr
10:25 p.m.
My sense from reading your notes is that Zesty Playford is what I'd
think of (as an American who has danced English in the SF Bay Area,
Boston, etc) as good English dancing with extra playfulness.
Questions: Is "Playford" the Brit usage where you mean what US means by
"English" dancing? (Since the linked video is of Jenny Pluck Pears,
which fits both categories, I couldn't tell.)
My brief experience of "Extreme" / "Trash" English was that it was
really specifically an attempt to bring US-urban-contra aesthetic to
English dance / music. Music could be played sleazily, etc - but with
energy. Lots of twirls/flourishes.
(In the video I was seeing some improv - in one set the women did an
elbows-linked back-basket, which I'd never seen before - but not so much
contra-style flourishes. [Which I think are generally great in contra
but must be used sparingly in English lest you lose the satisfaction in
fitting the geography to the music.] So I'm arguing that Extreme
English seems not quite to be the same thing. I'd like to see all
English over here be more Zesty.)
-- Alan
On 4/27/2013 12:44 PM, Colin Hume wrote:
Rhodri Davies and I are both running Zesty Playford
workshops at
Eastbourne Folk Festival in a weeks' time. I've written a set of
notes, some of which I intend to use then, and would welcome feedback
either through the list or direct to me.
http://www.colinhume.com/dezesty.htm
Colin Hume
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29 Apr
29 Apr
6:57 p.m.
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:25:37 -0700, Alan Winston wrote:
My sense from reading your notes is that Zesty
Playford is what I'd
think of (as an American who has danced English in the SF Bay Area,
Boston, etc) as good English dancing with extra playfulness.
I'm not sure that some Americans would class it as "good", since it
isn't the way they've been taught to dance English.
Questions: Is "Playford" the Brit usage
where you mean what US
means by "English" dancing? (Since the linked video is of Jenny
Pluck Pears, which fits both categories, I couldn't tell.)
Yes it is. To us, "English" also includes "Traditional English" such
as Morpeth Rant and Cumberland Square Eight.
My brief experience of "Extreme" /
"Trash" English was that it was
really specifically an attempt to bring US-urban-contra aesthetic
to English dance / music. Music could be played sleazily, etc -
but with energy. Lots of twirls/flourishes.
(In the video I was seeing some improv - in one set the women did
an elbows-linked back-basket, which I'd never seen before - but not
so much contra-style flourishes. [Which I think are generally
great in contra but must be used sparingly in English lest you lose
the satisfaction in fitting the geography to the music.] So I'm
arguing that Extreme English seems not quite to be the same thing.
I'd like to see all English over here be more Zesty.)
I agree with all of that. Contra dancers in England don't do nearly
as many twirls as in the States. And I would guess that most of the
people in that video also dance contra. I've never seen an
elbows-linked back-basket before either! I imagine it was
spontaneous.
Colin Hume
9:13 p.m.
On 4/29/2013 11:57 AM, Colin Hume wrote:
US English is where I had my first
exposures to Morpeth Rant, Cumberland
Square Eight, Bonnets So Blue, Nottingham Swing, and Steamboat,
although I'll agree that these are rarely done.
(For non-English-dancers playing along at home, US English includes
"Historical" - stuff reconstructed (often fancifully) from publications
from 1650 forward, "Traditional" - stuff seen in "the wild" - and
what
I'll call "Modern": a ton of stuff choreographed and composed from the
20th century forward. (So in the US, dancers often dance to stuff
choreographed by American Gary Roodman with music by American Jonathan
Jensen, for example, but we still call it English.) "Playford" in the
strict sense would be historical dance published by John or Henry
Playford, but in the sense used in England now, if I understand it
right, would be "Historical" (not just Playford but Walsh, Kynaston,
Thompson, etc, etc) and Modern.
If I have this right, one might plausibly see Mayfair or Handel With
Care (selected as examples of Modern English, although I now realize
that they're both in more-or-less Historical style) at a Zesty Playford
evening. Is that right?
-- Alan
On Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:25:37 -0700, Alan Winston
wrote:
I think of good
English (in the US sense) as robust (with bursts of
slipping and skipping as appropriate), never mincing or plodding even
to slow tunes, with movement from the chest, unafraid to use lots of space.
My sense from reading your notes is that Zesty
Playford is what I'd
think of (as an American who has danced English in the SF Bay Area,
Boston, etc) as good English dancing with extra playfulness.
I'm not sure that
some Americans would class it as "good", since it
isn't the way they've been taught to dance English. Questions: Is "Playford" the Brit usage
where you mean what US
means by "English" dancing? (Since the linked video is of Jenny
Pluck Pears, which fits both categories, I couldn't tell.)
Yes it is. To us,
"English" also includes "Traditional English" such
as Morpeth Rant and Cumberland Square Eight.
30 Apr
30 Apr
8:55 a.m.
On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:13:47 -0700, Alan Winston wrote:
I think of good English (in the US sense) as robust
(with bursts of
slipping and skipping as appropriate), never mincing or plodding
even to slow tunes, with movement from the chest, unafraid to use
lots of space.
Then I will happily agree with you, but I have the feeling that
you're in a minority. I was once due to call for an English group
somewhere in the States and a woman was leading a Beginners' session
before I started. She told them "All English is slow and gentle",
and people who know me will be surprised to hear that I DIDN'T leap
up and shout out "No it isn't"!
US English is where I had my first exposures to
Morpeth Rant,
Cumberland Square Eight, Bonnets So Blue, Nottingham Swing, and
Steamboat, although I'll agree that these are rarely done.
And I'll admit that they're rarely done in England too. I still call
Morpeth Rant, but I hear band and dancers saying "Haven't done that
for years".
If I have this right, one might plausibly see Mayfair
or Handel
With Care (selected as examples of Modern English, although I now
realize that they're both in more-or-less Historical style) at a
Zesty Playford evening. Is that right?
Yes indeed. I've seen Rhodri Davies do my dance Oxford Circus at a
Zesty Playford session, and I think of it as very much in the
Playford style with the three introductions of Up a double and back,
Siding and Arming. In fact I'm going with genuine historical stuff
(1651- 1775) for my Zesty Playford session at Eastbourne Festival
this weekend. Similarly I'm doing the Playford Ball using all dances
from The Dancing Master - in other words published by John Playford,
Henry Playford and their successor John Young. Most callers are not
so fussy, but my view is that there's such a variety of style,
energy, rhythm, formation and music in The Dancing Master that you
really don't need to throw in dances by Pat Shaw, Gary Roodman or
Fried Herman (or even Colin Hume) to make a good programme.
Colin Hume
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