by Gillian Anne Renault
Published September 2, 2025
Some of the genres and structures of early music, lost by the 18th century, have been recovered by composers who are writing English country dances and music today
Gathering for an English country dance is like taking a walk through the history of social dance and music, from Queen Elizabeth I’s court to Jane Austen’s novels, from the New England colonies to America today where there are dozens of active dance groups. In cities across the country, people move gracefully across the floor at weekly dances as if at a Regency ball, although you’ll see far more jeans and t-shirts than dresses. And there’s always live music.
Today, choreographers the world over are creating country dances with original melodies but are just as often inspired by early music. “Alice,” created in 2002, is set to a siciliana from a Telemann oboe concerto.
Gene Murrow, perhaps best known as founder of the Gotham Early Music Scene, is especially fond of “Alice.” Murrow fell in love with English country dance many years ago when, as an uninitiated 18-year-old, he was asked to play recorder for the dance component of Chamber Music Week (now Early Music Week) at Pinewoods Camp in rural Massachusetts. “Here I was,” he remembers, “watching men and women holding hands in circles and skipping about and I thought it was all too weird, but I got hooked.”
Now, 60 years later, he is an accomplished dancer deeply involved with his local group, Country Dance*New York. He also emcees for balls across the country, teaches internationally, and has produced a series of English country dance recordings by the Boston band Bare Necessities.
“Playing Baroque music for dancing is closer to American jazz than it is to concert trio sonatas or the Bach Brandenberg concertos,” he says, “because it is improvisatory.” The only thing musicians have to go on is the melody, whether the dance and music are from the 17th century or the present day. “Everything else you hear is improvised on the spot. The realization of the harmony and bass line are done on the fly. As a classically paper-trained musician who studied oboe at Juilliard, that was a real shocker to me.”
Some of the genres and structures of early music that were lost at the end of the 18th century have been recovered by composers who are writing English country dances and music today, Murrow explains. “They’ve taken up Purcell’s mantle by writing and reviving some gorgeous 3/2 time hornpipes. They are among the most beautiful and popular dances.”
Several years ago, he asked Lisa Terry, a respected viola da gamba player and cellist, if she was interested in playing for country dance events, even though he would be paying her “peanuts” — much less than when she performs with NYC’s Parthenia Viol Consort or Philadelphia’s Tempesta di Mare. She said yes, got hooked, learned how to dance, and now regularly plays in a couple of dance bands.
Live music is an inextricable part of gathering. The band may consist of a violin or viola, piano, guitar or another rhythm instrument, and sometimes winds such as recorder and flute. Each dance number has a dedicated tune which can be in a variety of time signatures: 2/2, 3/2, 4/4, waltz time, a slip jig or a march, for instance, sometimes from works by Baroque composers. One of today’s most popular dances, created in 1698, is “The Hole in the Wall,” set to a Henry Purcell tune written a few years earlier as incidental music for a play.
Lisa Terry’s enthusiasm is evident when she talks about mastering the in-the-moment musical challenges. “Each time you go around the form of AABB, a different person takes the lead. You have to know you’re next and jump in. And you have to deliver, right then! The dancers are all moving but you can’t see them because you’re figuring out what you’re doing — but it’s incredible.”
The English country dance attracts people of all ages but tends to skew older. (Notably, some participants are former contra dancers. Contra is a subset of country dance with an equally rich history in North America and scores of groups across the continent. But the spin-your-partner moves required in almost every contra dance benefit from youthful legs and lungs.)
Angelika Pohl discovered English Country Dance in the 1980s in Amherst, Mass., where the dance form has been ubiquitous for centuries. She found a similar group when she moved to Atlanta. Now 84, she says the friendly atmosphere, the music, and the workout for both brain and body have kept her engaged for more than 30 years. “You don’t have to come with a partner,” she explains. “Dancing with lots of different men is fun.” Her sister, Lilian Bryan, at 91, has a more serious reason for loving the art form: “In these difficult political times it’s wonderful to get away and do something that’s genteel and beautiful.”
For Cathy Hollister, living in Nashville, part of the attraction is feeling connected with the other dancers. “We touch hands, we make eye contact, and we are connected in this synchronous motion with the music. It creates such a sense of community and support, there’s nothing else like it. I love it.”
Like Gene Morrow, Hollister is also an experienced caller, the person who decides which eight or 10 dances everyone will do at a gathering — there are thousands to choose from — and who calls out instructions before and during each dance so people can move seamlessly through even the most complex patterns. Anyone can join, she says, because there is no complicated footwork. Many of the figures start with a little setting step, similar to a simple ballet pas de basque, but after that it’s just graceful walking and occasional skipping. If you can walk, you can probably do English country dance.
Playford’s The English Dancing Master
Dance was big in 16th century England. Imported French and Italian dance masters brought elegant, stately, and energetic dances to the court of Elizabeth I, who loved to dance. The art form provided entertainment, encouraged social interaction and had a diplomatic function as well. Beyond the court, the populace enjoyed vernacular folk dances.
Both the court and indigenous dances made their way to North America when the colonists arrived in New England in the 17th century. Since then, English country dance in the U.S. has gone through peaks and valleys of popularity. But over the centuries these dances have been recorded and preserved in detail. The first descriptions were published in John Playford’s book The English Dancing Master in 1651. Several updated editions followed, and sales frequently outranked every other book except the Bible. Playford is, in fact, the bible of the artform, and today’s callers and dance historians frequently refer to it.
Jane Austen wrote about English country dance in Pride and Prejudice and Emma. In a scene for the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice TV miniseries, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet engage in love-hate banter as they dance “Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot.” It’s beautiful entertainment to watch, but historians say this particular dance was created a century before Austen’s time — the above-mentioned novels were published in the mid-1810s — and, anyway, would have been considered too old-fashioned by the young people of her era. Regardless, “Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot” (maggot means “fanciful idea”) survives such indignities and is one of the many historical dances still called today.
“Mr. Beveridge’s Maggot” is a so-called “longways,” the structure of most English country dances. As many couples as can possibly fit on a dance floor start by standing in two lines across from their partners. Depending upon the dance being called, dancers organize themselves into sets of two couples (a duple minor dance) or three couples (a triple minor dance) within the longways.
The choreography of each dance is repeated five or six times, or more. In duple minor dances, each “minor set” of two couples execute the figures together; in a triple minor, the choreography encompasses three couples. In both triple minor and duple minor dances, couples separate after each repetition and progress up or down the hall to dance with their neighbors. By the end of the evening everyone will have danced with dozens of other people.
There are a limited number of figures or movement phrases — a figure eight, for example, or a star formation of three or four people — all of which are relatively easy to learn, but they can dazzle the brain when woven together in infinite, intricate ways in both new and historical dances.
For its most dedicated participants, English country dance is a way of life, with travel to different cities for special weekends and annual balls. That’s when the costume-inclined and Austen die-hards dress in formal wear or Regency-style fashions such as long dresses and long white gloves for the women. Lilian Bryan recalls the fun and the pace of these weekend events. “You dance, go home to eat and sleep and come back (the next day) to dance some more.”
Bryan has cut back on travel but still dances with the Atlanta group which meets on the second and fourth Sunday each month. “And sometimes when there is a fifth Sunday in the month, we dance then, too,” she says. “I try never to miss it.”
Gillian Anne Renault’s dance writing has been published by numerous outlets including Ballet News, the Los Angeles Daily News, and ArtsATL.org. She was a recipient of an NEA fellowship to attend American Dance Festival’s Dance Criticism program.
