Kate Van Winkle Keller & George A Fogg
Dance instructions and music with chords 18th-century dance techniques. Period illustrations. This new collection of country dances appeared on a broadside advertisement issued by Capt. Benjamin Walker in Lunenburg, Virginia in 1784. Walker’s class of teenage dancers were of Scottish and English origin and his dances reflect both traditions of social dance. Walker drew his repertory from the latest fashions in London and Edinburgh but he modified them for his rural Virginia patrons. The broadside was a textbook for his students—they learned manners from his rules for the school and they learned to dance tracks, to phrase their movements, and to perform more complex figures as he introduced ever more difficult dances. Walker’s dances have proven very popular at pilot programs across the United States. The authors have located the original music and reconstructed Walker’s dances as they would have been performed in 1784. The book includes many illustrations of pages from old dance collections, portraits of those named in the titles, and a full section on modern and period country dance technique.
Table of Contents
School for Lovers - Love an Opportunity - Soldiers Joy - Jack on the Green - Sweet Hope - Suffer Care - Young Roger - Flora McDonald’s Reel - Highland Lady - Charley Stuart - Gallick Rant - Blowsey Bellow - Old Roger - Richmond Ball or Tom Brown - The Flowers of Edinburgh - Cameronian Rant - The Lad’s a Dunce - Swiss Allamande - Pride of Brunswick - Merry Christmas - Nancy Dawson - Raw Rum and Toddy - New Invention - Jamaica Dance - Armong Dance.
