Dances of the American Revolution
by Cathleen Myers
The most popular American social dances of the 1770’s were lively English-inspired country dances set to popular tunes of the time, and elegant Cotillions (direct ancestors of the Quadrille, Irish set dance and American Square Dance) with lots of optional fancy footwork In the class we’ll dance several exhilarating country dances from the 1770’s and, if time permits, one Cotillion – all to the dashing music of Bangers & Mash.Cathleen Myers has been dancing historical and vintage ballroom dance most of her life as her parents were also vintage dancers (or Olde Tyme dancers as they used to be called). Since 1988, she has been teaching and reconstructing Victorian ballroom dance and English country dance in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the Dance Director of the Dickens Fair and the Artistic Director of PEERS (the Period Events & Entertainments Re-Creation Society), which produces full-scale historical costume balls on the first Saturday of almost every month. For a list of PEERS’ 2004-2005 dance events, please see http://www.peers.org
Bangers and Mash started playing together in 1994, and have been performing music for English country and historical couple dancing ever since. They are regulars at events for PEERS as well as for BACDS (the Bay Area Country Dance Society). They’ve done a number of formal balls, as well as playing for innumerable dance series. For the past three years, they’ve performed at Fezziwigs Warehouse, the community dance stage of The Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco. See their website at http://www.well.com/user/cwj/bangersandmash for information about their upcoming performances.
