ALOHA – You’ve found the OAHU PLAYFORD ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCERS
What’s that we do? English Country Dancing is what you would see in the Jane Austen movies like “Pride and Prejudice” and on YouTube! It is a dance form that has been around since the 1600s and is still popular throughout the United States and the world. In our free classes you will learn how to dance to the variety of music and in the dance styles covering over 200 years!
Similar to Contra-dance or Scottish Country dance, we dance in lines of men and women facing, also in squares and circles. Our dances are selected for elegance and grace in the slower dances or exhilaration without excessive physical exertion in the faster dances. Our dancing is low impact, moderately physical, and is healthy exercise for your brain. If you can walk and know your right from your left, you already have the basics. There are no complicated steps to learn, and no ball-room hold, so no stepping on other peoples' feet.
Most of the movements are simply a walking step at various speeds with the music. Dancers move in a number of specific figures or patterns, sometimes holding hands, sometimes by themselves. Each dance is taught and then prompted by a dance leader, so that each figure and movement is queued in time to the music until the dancers can be on-their-own.
The soul of dance is the music. Some dance tunes are from old ballads and political satire; others from classical music and operas. This gives English Country Dance music tremendous variety; some hauntingly beautiful, some sweet and melodic, some with a jolly or lively beat. There's an indefinable quality to English Country Dance that makes it energizing, mesmerizing, and just plain fun.
You do not need to bring a partner. You can come by yourself and dance throughout the evening, since the tradition is to change partners for each dance. English Country Dance is social and friendly, and the atmosphere is informal. No special clothing is needed, other than clean, soft-soled, flat shoes or socks or even bare-foot. We dance on padded carpet over concrete.
We dance in our home in Olomana (Kailua). Being a small group, we are flexible as to when we dance. That’s whenever we can muster 4 or more dancers!
For more information e-mail to [email protected]
What’s that we do? English Country Dancing is what you would see in the Jane Austen movies like “Pride and Prejudice” and on YouTube! It is a dance form that has been around since the 1600s and is still popular throughout the United States and the world. In our free classes you will learn how to dance to the variety of music and in the dance styles covering over 200 years!
Similar to Contra-dance or Scottish Country dance, we dance in lines of men and women facing, also in squares and circles. Our dances are selected for elegance and grace in the slower dances or exhilaration without excessive physical exertion in the faster dances. Our dancing is low impact, moderately physical, and is healthy exercise for your brain. If you can walk and know your right from your left, you already have the basics. There are no complicated steps to learn, and no ball-room hold, so no stepping on other peoples' feet.
Most of the movements are simply a walking step at various speeds with the music. Dancers move in a number of specific figures or patterns, sometimes holding hands, sometimes by themselves. Each dance is taught and then prompted by a dance leader, so that each figure and movement is queued in time to the music until the dancers can be on-their-own.
The soul of dance is the music. Some dance tunes are from old ballads and political satire; others from classical music and operas. This gives English Country Dance music tremendous variety; some hauntingly beautiful, some sweet and melodic, some with a jolly or lively beat. There's an indefinable quality to English Country Dance that makes it energizing, mesmerizing, and just plain fun.
You do not need to bring a partner. You can come by yourself and dance throughout the evening, since the tradition is to change partners for each dance. English Country Dance is social and friendly, and the atmosphere is informal. No special clothing is needed, other than clean, soft-soled, flat shoes or socks or even bare-foot. We dance on padded carpet over concrete.
We dance in our home in Olomana (Kailua). Being a small group, we are flexible as to when we dance. That’s whenever we can muster 4 or more dancers!
For more information e-mail to [email protected]
