Playing for English Country Dancing

Do you enjoy playing for dancing, but need some inspiration to transform your playing from toe-tapping to foot-stomping? This is the course for you! While emphasising confident, passionate playing to serve and uplift the dancers, the team, led by pianist Jacqueline Schwab, will help you to explore various contemporary English dance styles with tunes old and new (some driving and percussive; others more songlike and flowing). You’ll create simple, vigorous basslines, improvise alternate melodic paths, and attempt to drive the rhythm while also lilting the melodies. You’ll be encouraged to experiment — at your own playing level — to discover and then confidently play your new ideas.

The team will be encouraging you to practise your existing skills and techniques for playing for dancing, while building on these skills as you build on your repertoire and ideas. You’ll be working as a whole group, as well as dividing into smaller groups to create some improvisatory arrangements together, in both guided and self-led sessions.

Who is it for?

This course is suitable for all instruments, as long as you’re a confident player and can play dance tunes up to tempo. Diatonic instruments can be accommodated, as long as you let us know in advance. You’ll need to be able to read music and we’ll send you dots in advance so that you can get acquainted with tunes you’ll be working with.

You’ll need to bring a music stand and copies of the music, and a way of making notes/recordings (most phones have this capacity).

The Team

Pianist Jacqueline Schwab (USA) has long lifted country dancers off their feet in the USA and beyond and is delighted to be returning to Halsway Manor. With the quartet Bare Necessities, she has explored flowing, improvisatory ways of playing for country dancing, and in the past, has also taught English dancing, and reconstructed dances. She has a music degree from the New England Conservatory, majoring in piano improvisation. She has played for many styles of dancing. In her teaching, she enjoys encouraging students to play with command, intention, dance lift, improvisatory freedom, and, most of all, heart. To find out more about Jacqueline’s work in film, as a concert pianist and dance discography please visit: https://www.jacquelineschwab.com/

Ali Messer plays for English country dancing and contra and has fun with improvisation to enable movement and to spark joy! She plays piano accordion a bit like a melodeon, and adapts her playing in conversation with the dancers, caller and other musicians.

Thomas Bending has been dancing and calling Playford, English country dances and contra since his university days, and has called everywhere from major festivals to local barn dances. He wants to encourage dancers to dance with the music and to think about those they're dancing with ... at the same time.

Rachel Bending has been dancing and calling for nearly 40 years. She loves encouraging people to play and explore the interplay between dancers and music.