This is the first of a series of books of all the dances referenced in Bob Ellis’ book - with all the cited variations - that Peter Barnard plans to publish, and is designed to work in a format for an evening’s dancing. Future books will contain all the other dances referenced in Bob’s book, as well as dances from a few later accounts that he does not cite. It is designed to work as a caller’s book.

Copies are £10 plus postage from Peter at peter.barnard@me.com

The book’s introduction

An Evening of Dances from the Yorkshire Dales

Social folk dancing in the Yorkshire Dales continued into the second half of the 20th century. The village dances were very popular, with combinations of folk and Old Time dances enjoyed. The pattern for an evening’s dance often blended these two styles. Those occasions were social gatherings, and dancing was a important vehicle for getting together.

In the last century various collectors visited the Dales and recorded interviews with dancers and musicians who could remember what went on. Transcripts of these interviews can be found at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London, at the British Library, and at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.

In 2020 local musician and researcher, Bob Ellis, published a wonderful book (There was None of this Lazy Dancing!) in which he set out the collected tunes, dances, and accounts from those people. It is a fantastic resource.

In reading the book I became aware, not only of the similarities and differences between some of the various versions of the dances and tunes, but also of the gaps in some of the accounts of the dances that were regularly danced. Indeed, in some of the accounts, only a list of the dances that were performed regularly – or danced on a specific date – is given, but without giving accompanying details of how those dances worked. This might have been because the dances were so well known that the collector did not need to describe them. Later accounts talk of how the dances were not called; everyone there knew them so well.

The variants of some of the dances described could be different dances, perhaps danced in different villages or at different times. Equally, the variations could represent ad hoc changes made on the spur of the moment in that setting; or they could reflect the time lag – in some cases 40 years – between the recollection and when the individual last did the dance.

I am a caller of folk dances, a dancer and a dance musician. I became particularly interested in what the programme of an evening’s dancing in the Dales would have contained. As a result, my research has taken me past the content of Bob’s book to other sources of folk dances in the north of England and across the border into Scotland - as I believe that these dances were probably popular and danced in this wider area. As time moved on, couple dances – many that we would now describe as Old Time dances - seem to proliferate. Indeed, accounts in the 1970’s talk of ‘every other dance being a couple dance’.

These dances deserve to be more widely danced, and this book seeks to redress that. The aim of this book (and that of the Dales Traditional Music and Dance Collective) is to realise all the dances mentioned – some described, others merely listed – in Bob’s book, enough to re-create a typical programme for an evening’s dancing. My key target audience are dance callers and dancers.

I envisage this publication as a supplement to Bob’s book; it is not in any way intended as a replacement for it. It will stand alone, but is best used in conjunction with his book.

It is said that every other dance in an evening’s dancing was a waltz! However, a lot of couple dances were enjoyed in the Dales which were not waltzes - The Barn Dance, Polka, Boston Two Step etc. - and it is easily possible to come up with a set of dances for an evening in which the set dances alternated with the couple dances, waltzes included. I have included as an appendix a programme of the Dales dances which I have regularly called. That alternation of set and couple dances works well.

Working from the details given in Bob Ellis’ book, I have set out 19 of the named dances (including the different versions where there are several variants), and commented on the dances cited by various individuals whom the collectors met. I have interpreted those dances which are not so clear from the accounts Bob includes. I have also included instructions from the repertoire of dancers from the north of England and Scotland for those dances mentioned by name only in Bob’s book in order to give a fuller account of the dances enjoyed in the area. Many of those dances are couple dances.

I direct you to Bob’s book to get the transcripts of the interviews. I have chosen to write these dance instructions in a language that I believe is familiar to many dance callers, but I have mostly not repeated the original words in the accounts. For those and to get a Yorkshire flavour of the accounts, you will have to go back to his book.

I have indicated the tune used for a dance where this is given in Bob’s book.

I hope that this publication inspires you to call and dance these lovely dances. It is the first of a series of books of all these dances that I plan to publish, and is designed to work in a format for an evening’s dancing. In time I aim to publish all the dances referenced in Bob’s book as well as other dances from a few later accounts that he does not cite.

THE DANCES IN THE BOOK

• Polka
• Huntsman’s Chorus
• The Barn Dance
• Circassian Circle (also known as Sicilian Circle)
• Heel and Toe Polka
• Kendal Ghyll
• The Friendly Waltz
• Roger de Coverley
• Buy a Broom
• Buttered Peas
• Eva Three Step
• Square Eight
• Ideal Schottische
• Old Towler
• Boston Two Step
• Swinging Six (also known as Meeting Six, The Self and The Sylph)
• St Bernard’s Waltz
• The Holly Berry
• Turn Off