The English Ceilidh dance (as described in the
Community Dances Manual, book II)
goes something like this, with assorted notes and comments...
Form: Progressive longways contra. Man facing partner (hands four)
Longways means that you are in couples, facing your partner
in a long line away from the band. Or rather, two long lines rather than one long line and what
normally happens is that all the men start off in one line and the women in the other.
Hands Four means that the first two couples (nearest the band) nod to each other
and say hello, they'll be dancing together. The next two couples do the same, the
next two, the next two etc all down the line. This is all before the dance starts
and it just makes sure the couples know which direction they are going. The couple closest to the
band in each little group of four will be doing something different to the couple further away and
the couple closest to the band are conventionally called the 'first couple' and the others the
'second couple'.
Progressive means that during the dance you will be moving either one
place up the line or one place down - you'll then dance with a different couple.
The music....
The A1, A2, B1 and B2 below mean
the parts of the music. The tune is a 32 bar hornpipe,
which means you can consider it in 4 sections (8 bars each, or if you want to break it down further,
4 bars getting somewhere and 4 bars getting back....).
The words don't say but the music will get your feet doing a
step-hop
(or maybe a one-two-three-hop), you can travel quite far like this....
A1
First couple visit the second girl, honour and retire.
This means the first couple dance across to the lady of the second couple - sort of diagonally.
They can nod, bow or put in variations like a quick circle etc etc. Then they go back again and...
... then the same to her partner
Same stuff to the other person - sort of diagonally again, still more or less away from the band -
and back again.
A2
First couple down the centre and back to places.
So, after having visited each of the second couple, the first couple dances down the set (the 'set'
means the whole line of people), turns round and back again. It's the step-hop still so, yes, you can
move a long way down...
B1
All cross and turn right and cross back and turn left. (Figure 8)
Girl passing above partner each time.
You've danced down the set as a couple and back up to where you started - now turn to
face each other and dance past each other.
You do it and the second couple do it as well, everybody is moving.
'Passing above' means that the lady passes on the side closer to the band - so left shoulders.
Makes for a nice movement, you pass with the left shoulder then sweep round to the right,
think of it as a big loop round and back towards your place.
Don't think of stopping in your place. Carry on! Cross right shoulders with your partner
and then sweep round to you left. Another big, big movement.
This is the classical way of getting people in a 'longways set' to progress, or to move on to
the next people waiting to dance with them. You can polka round each other, normally the two
couples arrange not to hit each other by polkaing anticlockwise round each other.
An
early version
of the dance, from James Fisin,
Ode to May
(1799).
The dance has changed a bit since then.
Speed the Plough as
from the Country Dance Book (from Cecil Sharp, 1909).
The Music...
There are number of tunes with the 'Speed the plough' name, there's an Irish family of tunes
(see the
references on
the Session) and the tune played for the
Morris.
The two can be compared on the
Aardvarks' recording
Pleasures of the Town
which contains both the Irish and English tunes.
