Folk Dances
Peasant Dances of Many Lands – Book used in PNEU for forms 2-4. We don’t have access to programmes for forms 5-6 while Mason was living, so I don’t know what was used for High School during that time period. I suggest that you open this book and try a few dances with your kids. We hope to eventually try to make videos of these dances. In the mean time, try on your own, or feel free to do the Form 1 Dances as a family.
English Country Dancing
The English Country Dance – by Cecil Sharp. These Volumes were used after Mason’s Death in the PNEU. They build from simple to advanced. They were used for forms 2-6 after her death. This website lists all the books and explains the dances. If you click on the specific dance you can also find a link to the Sheet music which you could print and have your students play on the piano or another instrument. We will also try to have this music recorded eventually.
Here is an example of Book 1:
The English Country Dance, Graded Series
All are undated. Volumes I–IV are “by Cecil J Sharp”, later volumes “by Cecil J Sharp, edited by Maud Karpeles”. The dances in Vols I–IV are numbered sequentially 1–24; dances in later volumes are numbered 1–6 in each volume.
I am not certain how many dances they were learning per year or term. It seems they maybe did 6 each term, but I am not sure.
English Country Dances by Cecil Sharp: Here is a YouTube play list of quite a few Cecil Sharp songs from the English Country Dance books Mason used. You could look through the play list and find the dance you want to try and play the music while you do the dance. For example, here is the audio for The Black Nag piano music that goes along with the Black Nag dance above in Book 1! When I get more time, I will try to link these all together! One of my biggest hurdles right now is I don’t know what all the dance terminology means in this book, so if you are a dance person with more training, please contact me. I would love the help!
Here is a different version of the Country Dance book with 18 songs instead of 6 like Mason used.
Country Dance and Song Society – This website will help you learn more about English Country Dancing
I suggest doing a youtube search for English Country Dancing and you will get lots of other resources. Square Dance is an American interpretation of English Country Dance. Some Folkdance resources are below.
Scandinavian Dances
These were also listed on the PNEU Programmes, but I have been unable to find the original books, so I don’t know what was being done exactly.
Here is a website that explains Scandinavian dance.
Here are a few video examples of Scandinavian Dances:
Square Dancing
Modern Books and resources:
This is a fabulous free resource: Hoedown/Pioneer Trek Music and Dance Instruction – Free Download
Traditional Barn Dances with Calls and Fiddling I just ordered this and will update soon on it’s functionality! It has arrived and seems like a workable American Folk Dancing Resource!
EducatiGet Ready To Square Dance CD This CD looks good. Apparently it’s fairly simple and the instructions are an online document included on the CD. I don’t have it, but might purchase it soon.