Essay update

It is about a month before I need to submit my essay.

I have been looking at the development of Country dance between about 1650 and 1900. Country dance includes the dances published by Playford, the longways dances that developed during the 1700s, quadrilles, waltz, polka and many others. I have found out many things. In particular I would like to draw your attention to three items.

Firstly, during this period dancers have started dancing closer together for longer period of time. Think about this for a minute. In longways sets that were common in the 1700s, partners stand in opposite lines from each other, maybe between 1.5 and 2m. However, once the waltz was fully developed by about 1840 and then the introduction polka, it was possible for partners to have contact for 100% of the time.

Secondly, the introduction of different musical meters stopped dancers becoming to board. Meters such as 9/8 allowed faster dances to take place. 9/8 was used in dances such as the Scotch Reel.

Thirdly, the introduction and development of so many different formations such as the longways, squares, couples, three and four people in a line allow dance figures to develop. In longways dance, the figures generally used two or three couples. Once the square formation had been introduced, the figure could be performed with 2, 3, or 4 couples. Much more variety.

One thing that has remained constant through this time is that this type of dance is social  Not only do you need a parter to dance with, you generally need to dance with other people also.

Speed

I have been researching areas for my essay on Historical dance and have narrowed it down to look at space requirements for the various dances that could have been danced at a ball in 1821. I am still working on it so don’t expect to read anything here about it, except that 3,000 words isn’t very long.

Here are two unrelated items that I have found that will be of interest:

The mechanical metronome was made widely available from 1817, and I have found three metronome markings in Quadrille publications, I haven;t found any in Country-dance publications. What I have found in Quadrille that the beats per minute (bpm) range from 88bpm to 120bpm. Dances in 6/8 time are generally played slightly faster the those in 2/4,and the average comes out at 100bpm. Many figures included in Quadrille dancing are very similar to those used in Country-dances at the time (turns, circles, leads etc.) and I suggest that Country-dances were probably performed at the same speed.

I have also looked at speed. James Cunningham writing about dancing at the Inns of Court suggests that in the 1630s dancing had slowed down and people were walking. In the 1820s, Thomas Wilson and others are moaning about people speeding up the dances, especially the waltz. They are romping about! This suggests to me that there is no set speed for Country or related dances. Do what you will!

Module Two: Historical dance

For my next module I am researching historical country dance in England.

I will be considering what dances could have been performed if a Ball was held at the Royal Pavilion in 1821 to celebrate the Coronation of George 4. George first visited Brighton in 1783, brought and developed the Royal Pavilion into a Royal Palace and spent time in Brighton. In 1811 he became Prince Regent as George 3 became ill and became King after George 3s death in 1820.

This is an interesting time for dancing. In 1650, John Playford published the English Dancing Master and it contained over 100 dances in many different formations and in modern country dance language included: longways, circles, squares. By 1700, the Country dance consisted of only longways dances. By the late 1700s, Cotillions from Europe had been introduced (these were square dances for four couple/eight people which contained figures from the country dances, so only two couples performed them at any one time). Slightly later in the early 1800s, Quadrilles were introduced (again square dances for  four couples, but the figures were more involved and generally involved all couples at the same time). Underlining these dances were the longways dances. But then, in 1814, the Waltz was introduced. Unlike the other dances at the time, the Waltz allowed close contact with members of the opposite sex! Scandalous to say the least and not universally accepted!  Would the Waltz be danced at the Royal Pavilion in 1821? That’s one of the questions I will try and answer.

Keep looking in as I progress with my enquiries.

Module 1: Completed

I have now competed my first module and I am now preparing to start module two in the next few weeks.

I have learnt and achieved much over the last few months. I researched the history of the dance, Morpeth Rant, presented my finding at a conference at Cecil Sharp House in March, wrote a conference paper and self reflected. Supervisors support has been excellent with positive encouragement.

This will be be my last post in this section. My next post will reflect my next module, the development of English country dance until 1900. See you there!

Reflection 14

It’s been a few weeks since I presented at the Stepping for Success conference and I have bene asked to comment how I feel about it now.

I can say honestly that I enjoyed the day and the event. Listening back [and I find it difficult to listen to my own voice] I think I spoke well, not to fast, understandable and clear.  I had about 30 people in the room, and it was fun to get everybody up to to do on-the-spot polkaing and ranting.

I think the content level was about right, for those who had a general interest and those who had a more interest in traditional, the EFDSS or Northumberland. I shared the hour with Robert Moir, and some may have come to listen to his presentation.

I spoke first in the first breakout session after the Keynote speaker. Much has been written about talking in the graveyard slot (after lunch) and being the last speak of the day. I could’t find very much about being first. Here are a couple of bullet points that occur to me:

  • Does the first speaker set the tone and standard for the remainder of the conference
  • When I spoke, people appeared to be very alert and appeared to write lots of notes
  • The technical aspects of the conference had not been fully tested

I quoted two people who were sitting in the audience: Derek Schofield and Mike Wilson-Jones. I had’t warned them in advance, butI wonder, what does it feel like being quoted? Neither challenge me afterwards, so they must be happy with my comments. What does it feel like being quoted in a presentation?

I have been to a series of presentations since and I have been critical of the presenters approach since. They all add various styles of presenting: one spoke across the display screen (spoke to the slide), another had no notes and just visual slides and another had notes which he referred to infrequently and power point. I ned to refer to my notes less and lower the word count. Less is more.

Although I had some technical issues at my presentation (Robert did not have any slides), I do believe that having slides did add to the continuity of my presentation. Having text based slides is fine, but I think that visuals (photographs, scans of books) are much more useful.

We were well introduced by Kerry Fletcher.

***Coming on 6th April! Sean Goddard’s Consequences of bringing North-West Morris to the South East of England.  The Chanctonbury Ring effect. A free Download of paper presented at  the Histories of the Morris conference held at the EFDSS in June, 2017.  Look out for the web address in a couple of weeks.***

 

Reflection 13

Day after I presented my paper about the dance Morpeth Rat at the Social Dance Conference at Cecil Sharp House.

It went well. Within time, and received well. The practical dancing exercise showing the difference between the polka and rant step went down very well, with some of the audience saying how welcome the dancing was. A tip of the hat to Chloe Middleton Metcalfe for playing the fiddle at this time.

A couple of questions at the end. One about the use of the term polka by the Royton Morris Men, and another indicating that Northumbrian’s in the 1980s still did dance the rant step differently. Two more discussions took place afterwards, one about using the rant step as a travelling step (quite difficult and not much distance covered) and one about the relationship between the polka and the rant step.

Robert Moir presented about Playford and related dances in the following presentation.

I enjoyed the whole conference. A broad range of papers were presented as well as some practical discussions and dancing, I am hoping that there will be a record of the day: perhaps some proceedings?

 

 

Reflection 12

Getting close to Saturday now and my conference presentation.

Over the weekend I have been making last minute changes to the text to make it read better and easier.  I will read it through once more tomorrow and then send everything of to the EFDSS: they need to powerpoint and other items by 8 March. This is to make sure that everything works at conference end before Saturday.

I am using some visual items taken from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library archives. I would like to thank the library staff for their help in providing good scans and to give copyright clearance. Much appreciated.

Very much looking forward to Saturday.

Reflection 11

I thought I would comment on the process of editing.

As I said in an earlier post, on Thursday I had to present my presentation to my University supervisors and I went well over time. At the Social Dance Conference I have a maximum of 30 minutes to include questions. On Thursday I spoke at a rate of 128 words a minute, so I estimate that I need to get down to approx 2600 words to be well in time: this has allowed for a slightly late start, a shorting of the video to show twice through the dance, using perhaps volunteers for the practical and that my delivery might be slightly faster than at the University.

I have reviewed the video I made last Thursday. That was interesting. I wasn’t aware that I looked at the screen so much. The only reason I think I was doing this was to make sure the slide had changed and agreed with my text. They were always correct so I must stop doing that. Bringing my own clicker would have speeded up a touch: must make sure I have one at Cecil Sharp House!

Although I estimate that I spoke at 128 words a minute, after reviewing the video I think could speak slightly faster and would not be rushed.

The practical took three minutes. This was an enjoyable part and I had Pete Lyons playing the tune. We went along at 88 beats per minute. Reviewing commercial recordings, this would seem slow, but hey, it worked…! As a comparison, the video of the Reading Cloggies that I used went along at 112 beats per minute.

I have been editing away and have got the word could down to about 2900. Is this enough? I don’t know. It is very different practicing at home or in front of friends that in a room full of people. I’m going to do more editing today and then see.

I am beginning to enjoy this editing lark! I find it very difficult to decide what to leave in and take out. I like to give a fuller picture as possible, but this may mean that my presentations are knowledge heavy and dense, but I need to leave out stuff (which of course can be used later). I am finding it difficult to write to a set length/word count. This is a skill that I need to hone as my future modules this will be required.

And another thing. This editing lark and writing concisely takes much much longer than I expected. You need to be a real woodcrafts person to get the balance right: needs words the audience will understand and present them in a way that can be fully understood and not misunderstood. I have a number of new findings and I need to make the most of them.

I am really enjoying this process and have learnt a lot so far and looking forward to the final result in presenting at the conference.

I hope to have the presentation ready to go by the end of February.

Reflection 10

Today I presented my conference paper to my supervisors and course leader. Surprisingly I was looking forward to to this morning, and from my perspective it went very well. It is always worth presenting it live, rather than reading through at home on your own. As expected I went quite a way over 20 minuted so some editing will have to take place, but I have a couple of weeks to that.

Comments today included:

  • Presentation too long.
  • My speaking pace and loudness was fine. Calculated that I spoke at 128 words a minute. That’s good to know.
  • Very knowledgable and good content.
  • Use more original content
  • Use more images in the powerpoint, perhaps with a bit of colour.
  • Presentation was fine. Improvements could be made by more engagement with the audience. There are various ways of presenting paper: reading from script at one extreme and the other end no script but reply upon keyword or cards. There is a middle ground, using script for accurate quotes etc.
  • More focus. Comments included that I was covering far too much ground and messages/content became lost. Sharpen it up, Sean! Additional signposting would also help. When changing subject direction, tell the audience.
  • Include a piece about ethics and authenticity in collecting and publishing.
  • Define terminology. There will always be somebody that doesn’t know.
  • Clearer introduction. Introduce myself before anything else and speak briefly about the relationship between the presentation and my course.
  • Powerpoint. Reduce the number of slides. The number will go down as text must be reduced, but also consider.
  • Practical stepping went down a hoot!

How do I feel it went? It went as largely planned. Excellent feedback. I was surprised I only spoke at 128 a minute, I had expected that to me nearer 150, but there were are.

I would like to thank Pete Lyons who came along today to play the fiddle for the stepping practical. thanks, Pete.

Reflection 9

Why does the best evidence always come towards the end of research.

During the week I had discussions with Chris Brady who had been a member of the Reading Cloggies and he had given me the heads up where essential research could be found. If you want to see a video of the Reading Cloggies dancing, there is a link from Reflection 8.

Chris reminded me that Chris Metherell had taught steps to the Reading Cloggies and may have some additional information. Contacted Chris M and yes he did have more information, but it is more than that: it is essential evidence.

Chris M was able to describe a new ‘rant’ step. But also much more that dancers at Alnwick in 1985 there were two sets of dancers dancing Morpeth Rant. One set danced the EFDSS style, another the older, more traditional way.

You’ll have to come in March to hear more…!