Webfeet : FAQ
- A deceptively simple question - but no simple answer.
Certainly any description which includes names of dances, styles or music
or steps or dance movements is going to be incomplete. 'Folk Dances' are
more those which are part of a culture, tradition or community,
typically ones where you say "I don't really know where I learned that".
Answers include in the ways which refers to the manner people learn
the dances, that folk dances are more community-orientated than
commercial.
- The webfeet attempt at answering the question
is to say look around at the dancers, if you've got a generation or
more of of people dancing then you're at a folk dance, if you've got
a narrow age range, despite the dances, you're elsewhere.
- English Folk Dances, Barn Dances, Country Dances etc (there's no
end of names for them) are first and foremost social dances.
- Recognisible by a fairly regular structure - squares, circles
or line - a fairly regular pattern - one couple does something, the
second does it, the third does it.
- The dances can be done without having to learn particular
steps or without having to remember complex sequences of
instructions. There is a large range of dances done but it is normal
that instructions (or reminders) are called out as part of the
dance.
- Not an easy word and more variations appear every day :-)
There's Ceilidh, which seems
to be how it is spelt in Scotland, and Ceili,
which is more definitely Irish.
English Ceilidh is follows the Scottish spelling.
- Wikipedia
is a good starting off point.
- English Ceilidh is the wilder
side of English Folk or Barn Dance.
- There's no real dividing line between English Ceilidh and a Folk
or Barn Dance, the dances overlap, sometimes the same tunes are used
in both. The major difference is in the attack, as described in the
link above, you would hunt out your training shoes to dance at an
eCeilidh gig.
- An answer lifted straight off the EC discussion list -
If you're asking the question you want a Barn Dance
- In response to the perplexed 'Eh?'. The term 'Barn Dance' is
certainly better known than 'English Ceilidh'. People would
recognise a barn dance from various fund raising events
such as arranged by school Parent Teachers Associations. People
know the term 'English Ceilidh' from dance series, folk festivals etc.
- If you are putting on an event, a lot more people would know the
term barndance.
- Now we are into the area where the questions really are Frequently
Asked...
- Maybe there's two questions nestling together here - does 'English
Ceilidh' need a separate label and why use a Scottish/Irish term?
- The Webfeet answer to the first question is yes, there
needs to be a separate label although this is discussed, often at length
on the mailing list, and for the second that if there is a better name,
it hasn't turned up and made it into common usage.
- (You'll hear 'eCeilidh' but that's 'English Ceilidh' squashed into one
word)
- This depends on where you are: in the US, 'English Country Dance' (or ECD)
refers to the graceful, stately, Playford-type dances and those you
see in those Jane Austin TV series. There is a big difference between these
and English Ceilidh.
- In the UK there's a difference in terms of the music, eCeilidh music is
taken from all over, certainly not limited to tunes from the British Isles.
On the other hand the term English Country Dance music does
seem to imply that the tunes have English roots.
- Everyone will tell you it's not, the bands, the agents, the people
putting on the barn dance in the village hall, they'll all say
that anyone can do it. It's probably true, it's not Ballroom dancing,
Riverdance or endurance training after all
- There's two things in its favour, you don't have to
worry too much about the feet, there won't be any of those pictures
showing an indeterminate number of footprints trying to waltz, and you don't
have to remember too much either, there'll be a caller reminding people
of what's coming next until he or she's sure that everybody has got it
- This used to be a question of 'do you know one', if so ask them,
if not, find an agency.
- Nowadays it is possible to browse the collected web pages, look for
recommendations from the various newsgroups. However there is still
a place for asking an agency, particularly if you want a dance
as part of an event (say a wedding). You probably don't want to
bother with the details, the agency will try to find a band
and caller which fits your wishes.
- Webfeet maintains a short list of
Booking Agencies, doesn't
- The uk.music.folk
FAQ
also has a
section
on this.
- Well, there's a chance you'll find a band who plays for the
love of it or who accept your offer to do their replumbing
the next time. If not, you'll have to accept that you
can be paying 3, 4, 5 or more people for 'X' hours work, driving
back and forth, the wear and tear on the collection of
instruments and equipment, insurance costs and potentially
the Agent's fee as well.
- Now, of course, you want figures - so assume 60 to 100 pounds per person
(don't forget the caller) and you should not be too far off. Some
bands will be more, maybe some less. You are more likely to be
at the high end of this range in the south of England.
- Webfeet is described in the overview and
help pages - but in short it is designed to be
a focus for English Ceilidh, Folk Dance, Barn Dance information etc on
the Web.
It includes indexes to bands, events, recordings and samples
(MP3's for example), diaries and a search engine.
- Searches find pages in webfeet itself and 'neighbouring sites', which
is to a first approximation any page that Webfeet points to.
- See the search page for more information.
-
- Just send webfeet an Email with the URL of your website or
text of what you'd want in a simple page. There's no charge....
- If you've got a web page, don't forget to include where you're based
in it!
- How do you know what's a Frequently Asked Question?
- See what the search engine
is asked,
and listen to the discussions on the
English Ceilidh mailing
list.
- Many of these answers were much debated on the
English Ceilidh Discussion List (above!)
All the best quotes on this page belong to the
members of the list.
- You mean lookup another FAQ? Well there's the
uk.music.folk
FAQ
for topics regularly discussed in the Newsgroup.
- There's a lot of these questions, the answers apply to the UK and normally
for topics outside the Webfeet area you can find references in the
Entsweb dance pages.
- Try
http://www.setdancingnews.net/
but be aware that this is not a Riverdance-type stepdancing site
(there used to be a site for Irish Ceili as well, ceili.ie, that
seems to have gone in 2004. See the copy on the
Wayback machine).
- As far as I know there isn't a collection of descriptions of Morris dances
on the web. There's books (the Bacon 'Black Book' which you might be
able to get through the
EFDSS)
but these are no substitute for an evening in a pub with a Morris
side...
- 'Tis true. Life is too short and keeping Webfeet up-to-date
with just the English Ceilidh / Folk Dance / French / Breton
information is enough work. If anyone does have
a good link to a UK index of Latin and/or Ballroom I'll include
it here....
- Pass on this one... It is a frequently asked question but I've
not seen a site which answers it. The closest could be
SIFD
The Society for International Folk Dancing.
- The
History of Belly Dance
page gives a description of the context.
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Mail: mgk@webfeet.co.uk
URI: http://www.webfeet.org/faq.html
Keywords: orgwebfeet200309, orgwebfeet, webfeet, webfoot, dance, folkdance, folk dance, barndance, barn dance, country dance, english country dance, ceilidh, french, breton