English Country Dance
Also known as: Country Dance, Contredanse
History & Cultural Context
English Country Dances emerged in England during the early 17th century as accessible social dances for all classes. Unlike formal court dances, country dances featured group formations (lines, squares, circles) where dancers executed figures like dos-à-dos, allemandes, and hands-across with various partners. The style was documented comprehensively by John Playford in his 'The English Dancing Master' (1651), which preserved hundreds of country dance figures. The dances' social nature and accessibility made them enormously popular in England, and they spread to America where they became foundational to colonial dancing traditions. Country dances influenced the development of American contra dances and remained popular through the 19th century.
Cultural Significance
Spread by Playford's printed collections, English country dances were popular in England and the American colonies; scholarship notes they were primarily the social dances of educated, genteel society rather than the rural country folk.
Peak Popularity
Signature Figures
- Dos-à-dos
- Allemande
- Hands-Across
- Cast
- Lead
Notable Codifiers
- John Playford
- Cecil Sharp
Track Your English Country Dance Progress
Practice English Country Dance figures between lessons with Figure Focus — step-by-step breakdowns, floor diagrams, and progress tracking. Free to use.
English Country Dance Playlists
Curated collections on the LODance YouTube channel — performances to watch, lessons to learn from, and the right music to practice with. Tap a collection to play.
▶ Performances · Open on YouTube →
English Country Dance Music & Tempo
Drawn from 25 English Country Dance tracks in the LODance music library.
Example tracks at practice tempo
- Gathering Peascods — John Playford Collection116 BPM
- Rufty Tufty — John Playford104 BPM
- Shrewsbury Lasses — Various (Regency era)120 BPM
- Hole in the Wall — John Playford Collection100 BPM
- Duke of Kent's Waltz — Various (Regency era)108 BPM
- Dargason — Traditional (Playford)120 BPM
English Country Dance on screen
Films and television where English Country Dance appears, with the sequences worth watching for.
Poster artwork and title data from TMDB. This site uses TMDB and the TMDB APIs but is not endorsed, certified, or otherwise approved by TMDB.
English Country Dance in performance
One staged work in the Limelight catalogue contains English Country Dance.
- Gambols2014Ballet · Jenna Simpson · defining style
The whole dance — A newly choreographed dance built entirely in the English country dance vocabulary: figures for four couples performed in a longways set to a single period-style tune. Source: "Gambols is an English country dance created by Jenna Simpson f…
Every claim above is quoted from a cited source and names where in the work the style appears. Claims we could not place or could not quote are held back from this list and shown on the work’s own page instead. Browse the full performance catalogue →
What to Wear
Attire guidance for English Country Dance and other Historic Regency Country dances. Each card below is sized to the moment — class, practice, social, or competition — because the wardrobe shifts as the stakes do.
Reading the cards
In Class
Soft-soled shoes, comfortable clothing. Long skirts optional but helpful for learning to manage period movement.
Social Dancing
Regency balls are popular: women in Empire-waist gowns and long gloves, men in breeches and tailcoats or period-adjacent formalwear. Jane Austen societies maintain active social dance calendars.
Competition
Not competed; performed at historical events in full Regency costume.
Shoes
Women: flat ballet-style slippers or character shoes without heel. Men: flat dress shoes or period boots. The dances were designed for flat shoes on polished wood floors.
In Practice
The dances were built for flat shoes on polished wood floors — heels work against the geometry of the figures.
Price Range
- Budget: Flat ballet slippers or oxford-style flats $40–90; modern formal-adjacent clothing.
- Mid: Period-styled Empire-waist gown $200–600; men's tailcoat and breeches $250–700.
- Premium: Bespoke Regency reproduction costume $1,200–4,500.
Quick Tips
- •Suede-soled shoes allow controlled sliding and pivoting — essential for most partner dances.
- •Avoid rubber soles on dance floors; they grip too much and can cause knee injuries.
- •Bring a separate pair of clean shoes for the dance floor to keep it in good condition.
Recommended Gear for English Country Dance
Essential equipment and apparel selected for dancers learning English Country Dance.
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Sources & Further Reading
Where This Dance Is Documented
John Playford – The English Dancing Master (1651 onward editions)
An editor's note on where the technique for this dance is actually written down — sometimes a named book, sometimes the fact that no such book exists. A judgement, not a count of what we hold.
Cultural & Historical Context
English Country Dance emerged from England during the 1600s—1700s. Understanding the cultural roots, musical traditions, and social circumstances of this era enriches appreciation for the dance's characteristics and significance.
Formative Influences
Codifiers & Standardizers:
John Playford, Cecil Sharp
Signature Movement Vocabulary:
Dos-à-dos, Allemande, Hands-Across, Cast, Lead
Primary Source Documents
The Library of Dance contains public-domain primary sources for dance history. Copyrighted modern syllabi are indexed with purchase links to their respective copyright owners. Search by dance name or codifier to discover primary source documents.
Last reviewed: August 2026 — This dance profile synthesizes historical research, cultural documentation, and contemporary practice knowledge to provide authoritative context.
Related Dances
More in Historic Regency Country
Longways Set
Longways set dances were English line dances performed in two parallel lines, featuring partner exchanges and figures typical of Regency-era dancing.
Cotillion
The Cotillion was a square dance for four couples that emerged in 18th-century France as the contredanse française. Its memorized figures alternated with a set of "changes," and it spread to English and American ballrooms in the later 18th century.
Quadrille
The Quadrille was a highly structured square dance for four couples, systematized with five figures and remaining popular throughout the 19th century in aristocratic society.
Scottish Reel
The Reel was a rapid Scottish couple or group dance featuring continuous turning and was related to English country dances. It became popular throughout the UK and influenced American square dance.
Round Dance
Round dance was the 19th-century ballroom category for closed-position couple dances — waltz, polka, schottische, galop, mazurka — that travel counterclockwise around the room, distinguishing them from the era's square dances (quadrille, cotillion) and country dances. Origins are debated; see Sources.
Grand March
A processional in march time used to open a formal ball, in which the assembled couples form a single column and are then divided and recombined into twos, fours and eights as they travel the room. It is less a dance than an organising device: it presents everyone in the room to everyone else and delivers a crowded floor into order for the dancing that follows.
Lancers
A five-figure quadrille set with its own distinct figure content, including a visiting figure in which couples call on each other in turn and a closing figure built on a grand chain danced to march time. After an initial vogue it faded, was revived around the middle of the nineteenth century, and became the set that outlasted every other in the ballroom.
Plain Quadrille
The standard five-figure set of Le Pantalon, L'Ete, La Poule, La Trenis or La Pastourelle, and the Finale, danced by four couples in a square. This was the default set of the nineteenth-century ballroom, the one a dancer was assumed to know, and the frame against which every other quadrille set was described.
English Country Dance in art
Browse the gallery →Public-domain works our catalogue identifies as depicting english country dance.
Ballroom dancing
Unknown artist
The dance
Unknown artist
Images of ballroom dancing
Unknown artist
Blythsome bridal - Title
Artist unknown · 1812
(Kings Theatre) Mlle. Hullin, (Haymarket)
Unknown artist
L'ouverture d'un bal
Unknown artist
French social dancing
Unknown artist
Le bal champêtre
Unknown artist
The old English country dances: as performed at the court & nobilities balls
Unknown artist
Masquerades and fancy-dress balls in prints
Unknown artist
Child dancers
Unknown artist
The "Sir Roger de Coverley" dance
Unknown artist
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