What is ECD?
English Country Dance (ECD) is a style of social folk dance with origins in the countrysides and courts of 17th century England. You may have seen these dances being done in films such as Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Emma, set in the Regency Era when community dances were a favorite pastime for people of all ages and social backgrounds. Our events typically focus on English country dances from the 1600s through early 1800s as well as more recent compositions in the same style, and also some early American dances and contra dances.
With several hundred years to its history, ECD contains a wide range of variability. The dances draw from a shared collection of steps that are mixed, matched, and arranged to fit with a specific piece of music. The steps combine to create patterns in which partners interact with each other and the neighboring couple beside them, then progress on to the next neighboring couple to continue the sequence to the next round of music. Depending on the choreographer's and caller's choices, a dance may be set to a traditional tune, a modern melody, an excerpt from classical concertos, or a motif from movie soundtracks. Whatever the case may be, the caller is there to announce the format of the dance, teach the specific sequence of steps, and prompt the steps throughout so that everyone knows where to be and how to get there. |