English Country Dancing

One of the last dances 

 

 

 

Tonight we tried our hand or should I say our feet at English Country Dancing. Wikipedia defines English Country Dance as a form of social folk dance which originated in Renaissance England, and was popular until the early 19th century in parts of Europe and the American colonies.

There is a great group of homeschoolers in our area who meet together on the first Friday of the month. When Caleb and I attended the Mother / Son luncheon, English Country Dancing was one of the activities and it was delightful!

The dance is elegant and scripted. Each dance is introduced and the steps are taught before the music is added. With each new dance you select a new partner, and throughout each dance you and your partner work in and out with other couples. The dances are a work out and some can rival any aerobics class!

For December everyone dressed for the time period. Everyone brought cookies and homemade goodies served with punch cups of Ginger Ale!

I realize we live in a time of electronic gizmos and delivery pizza sufficing as a teen social event. But this was positively delightful! I know it's crazy, but the kids spoke (not texted) and visited with each other. They introduced themselves to other youth and parents. They also shared in stories of homemade sugar cookies.

It was a sheer blessing to see the youth interacting with each other and adults with complete manners and social graces appropriate to the time period. Caleb and Abigail danced every dance of the evening. Jon and I dance several, until we couldn't keep up! I think Frankie made it one or two songs before she decided it was far more fun to take photos of everyone than to dance.

Each dance began with the young men escorting their partner by the arm on the dance floor and concluded with both partners bowing to honor to their partner, thanking them for the dance. Even at the end of the night, the young men shook hands and bowed to the ladies, thanking them for a lovely evening.

Mom's fake out of breath smile!

This is something we will do again! Two years ago we square danced, this was much more elegant and minus the caller. My sweet, sweet friend, Ms. Donna loves the Pride and Prejudice style bonnet movies. That isn't my cup of tea; I prefer a good mystery any day! With that said, this uncoordinated 'church of Christ' (aka. we don't dance) girl had a great time. Outside of our square dancing adventure, I don't think I've danced since 'choreographing' in Spring Sing at Oklahoma Christian!

Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.

Jeremiah 31:13