Folk dancing, English; Folk music -- England -- History and criticism; Folk songs, English -- England -- History and criticism
When they began to teach we found they had only one adjective between
them and it was “perpendicular,” and this word had to do duty many
times during the evening. We were told we must “dance perpendicular to
one another,” “perpendicular to the music,” and finally that we had got
the dance “quite perpendicular”!
But I think we got hold of the dance, and that our boys and girls
dance it much better than if they had been taught it by a professional
dancer with technical terms and a settled technique; anyway, they love
the dance, and it is always encored when we give it in public.
What, then, is the natural way for these ever-changing, ever-evolving
dances to be passed on? I unhesitatingly say that they should be learnt
in the first instance from the traditional dancer and passed on in
the same way. The written instructions are only useful as a reminder
of steps and evolutions, and should never be made an unalterable and
fixed standard. For if folk-dancing has been evolving through all these
countless generations, who shall fix the exact moment when evolution
ceased and the steps and evolutions became fixed and unalterable? So
far as I have seen traditional dancers, I have noticed that not only
does every side in every village dance a little differently, but each
man has his own way with the steps, and still further, the same man
may dance differently every time he does the dance. I am behind no one
in the desire that these dances shall be as accurately transcribed
and as carefully taught as possible, and that the general character
and atmosphere shall be preserved, but it is just because of this
desire that I would have the dances as far as possible left to the
interpretation of those who are unhampered by technical knowledge and
unconfined by technical terms and academic restrictions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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