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U.S. Campus Life

Colonial dance

By Masako Yamada


植民地時代のダンス

"The Reel Nutmeg" のメンバーが、アメリカ植民地時代のダンスを披露。

I recently attended a recital of a chamber music group that is committed to playing lesser-known works on period instruments in historical settings. The grand finale of the evening consisted of performances of Colonial American Dances by a dance troupe called "The Reel Nutmeg."

I had never heard of Colonial American Dance before, and I'm sure that most of the audience members had not heard of it either. For this reason, the leader of the group, Helen Davenport, provided a brief history. Since I like music and I like dance, I found this extremely interesting.

Apparently, after the first English settlers came to the States, the immigrants were still a bit obsessed with "keeping up" with the trends back home in England. Thus, they eagerly awaited the arrival of ships from England that would not only bring them English goods, but would also bring them the latest English dance steps.

Many of the dances the new settlers danced were based on English dances, but as time progressed, an American style began to emerge. The Reel Nutmeg performed some dances that could not be traced to any particular English dance. That is to say, the dances were born in America. These Colonial dances kept on evolving over hundreds of years and morphed into that uniquely American dance form: the square dance.

Even though I don't have a drop of English blood in me, nor did I grow up square dancing in barns, this story had a strangely sentimental effect upon me. Because I grew up in a Japanese community in the States, I understand the yearning of expatriates to maintain their ties to home. My classmates eagerly absorbed Japanese videos, CDs and comic books, sometimes only a week or so after they were released in Japan. However, inevitably, our culture evolved in its own way, and we ended up being quite different from our peers in Japan.

I appreciated the efforts of The Reel Nutmeg to bring the old colonial dances to life. Luckily, many of the steps have been recorded by diligent colonists, so dance troupes such as The Reel Nutmeg can revive them now. The troupe strives to resurrect, preserve and propagate these classic American dances. The dances don't involve ballet-like artistry or acrobatics. They are, in fact, quite simple. But I was struck by the group's commitment to studying and teaching the history of the dances.

I was charmed by the ladies in puffy calico dresses and the men in knickers and lace collars. Back in those days, mingling between the sexes was strictly monitored, but the dances provided plenty of opportunities for the dancers to slip in a flirtatious glance or touch behind the watchful eye of the chaperones.

After the dance troupe performed their routines, they called up the audience members to the front of the room so we could all learn some of the steps. I quickly saw the connection between the American Colonial dance and the square dance: Both have flexible lines of dancers, not rigid couples. As in square dancing, the troupe leader "calls" the moves and the dancers constantly switch partners while following the instructions.

I took a quick look around the room and saw that the dancers ranged from around age 10 to at least age 70. I found it a fun way to have physical contact with other human beings without having to worry about having a partner or finding the right peer group. I know there are dancers who are very careful to do the steps precisely according to tradition, but my impression was that this is a communal folk dance that everybody should be able to enjoy.

Indeed, after the event was over, some of the members of the troupe came up to me and told me that there are local churches that hold public colonial dances several times a month. Even though I doubt I'd ever join them, I was surprised and happy to hear that there exists a whole world of people keeping this tradition alive. I was also surprised that the troupe members approached me at all, since I was so obviously non-English in a largely white audience. But it's true I felt I could understand the colonists, and perhaps they felt that I could, too.


Shukan ST: May 10, 2002

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