History of British country dancing
Historical traces of British country dancing. English Country Dancing is believed to be the oldest form of folk dance still being danced in the world. Its origins can be traced back at least as far as 1480, or many years before Columbus sailed to America (the date of the tune of “Sellenger’s Round,” a circular or maypole dance that uses a variation on the hymn tune “All glory, laud and honor to thee redeemer King”). Many names of English Country Dances appear in sixteenth and early seventeenth century literature (including in Shakespeare), and many of their tunes appear in manuscript and published sources of the period, but the earliest surviving set of dance instructions appears on a 1648 manuscript. English Country Dance was one of the most popular forms of recreation in colonial America, as it was accessible to everyone from the governor and gentry (like George Washington) to slaves. In the winter, many houses with larger rooms danced almost every evening, because the heat of dancers warms a house better than any fireplace. Virginians in particular were described by outsiders as being “immoderately fond of dancing.” A scornful Presbyterian tutor on a Virginia plantation noted that the passage of a hurricane just before a scheduled ball failed to halt the event; “Blow high, blow low,” he wrote, “Virginians are of genuine blood: they will dance or die!”