LIVERPOOL CONTRA CLUB.
We are a specialist club for English Country Dancing. We meet on Tuesday evenings each week, from 7.45p.m to 10 o'clock. This is right through the year, apart from a summer break during June, July & August, and sometimes we miss out on the Tuesday following a bank holiday (e.g. Christmas and Easter.).
No previous experience is needed, and anyone is welcome simply to turn up some Tuesday night.There is no joining fee nor annual subscription; just a small charge each evening you come, (£2.00 from October 2006),), and this even includes light refreshments.
No special equipment is needed ; just comfortable shoes. You do not need to bring a partner,and you would normally dance with many different people during an evening.
English country dancing still suffers from a reputation for being "sniffy", with mistakes being frowned on. This is NOT the case in Liverpool Contra; there is plenty of laughing and smiling in our club, especially at the mistakes we all still make together. Beginners are always very welcome.
Our Secretary is Maria Warrington, 0151 427 1907.
Our club is one of a number of folk-dance clubs in the the Mersey And Deeside federation, M.A.D.folk) ,
and is affiliated to the The English Folk Dance & Song Society.
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ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCING .
Some people refer to this as barn-dancing, or even "square-dancing" or ceilidhs (which are rather different). It is not solo or couple dancing, but we dance in "teams" or "sets" of a number of couples, and everyone dances together to form pleasing patterns of movement.
Many of the most popular country dances were composed in the 20th century, and modern dances which are still being created in this tradition. Some of the dances we keep alive are the formal dances from the dancing masters of the 18th century.
English country dancing was taken across by early American settlers, and became very popular in New England, where it it developed in its own way, and much of this was brought back to England. As a result, we do include some "American" country dancing in our programmes, but we do not do any Line dancing.
There are two main types of English Country Dancing;
to over-simplify
the dancing of the ordinary folk of the villages and market towns,
and the dancing of the gentry in the Big Manor House and London grand residences, the latter being generally known by the name of Mr. Playford, a most famous Dancing Master who composed many of the typical dances of this type. So these "Playford" dances tend to be more gentle, graceful and sedate than the "barn-dance" activities of the "country-folk."
The word "ceilidh" crops up in these conversations, and while it is used widely in Scottish and Irish, it can be used in English Country dancing to denote dances and dancing at the more rumbustious and energetic end of the spectrum.
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