English Country Dance Choreographies
After years of English country dancing—since I was 8 years old—I’ve only recently begun creating my own English country dance choreographies. I love it! It’s such a fun combination of movement, interaction, musical expression, and puzzle solving. I was very prolific before the coronavirus came in and shut everything down, creating new choreographies and sending them out into the world. They were already starting to be danced in dance halls across the country, and the feedback on them has been wonderful so far. I started choreographing again in May 2021, with Red-Tailed Hawk, and then wrote Awakening for the Playford-to-the-Present ball in October 2021. I’m now getting back into a groove and choreographing more. In June 2022, I offered up an original dance for the Hey Days auction, and got two takers for it. I even won a dance-writing competition in May 2022 with my dance As You Were! 🙂
The links below have information about each dance, including the instructions, music, and video(s). I’m also happy to share recordings if you need one, since I often have to edit the recording or change the tempo to suit the dance. Feel free to contact me at camusr6 at gmail dot com.
I hope you try out my dances and enjoy them! I’d love to hear from you about it if you do. 🙂
Announcing: My new book and 2-CD set of the English country dances I wrote is AVAILABLE NOW!
Choreograffiti: English Country Dances
by Renée Camus
A new spiral-bound book of 21 English country dances written by Renée Camus, and an accompanying two-CD set of recordings by some of ECD’s best musicians.
This book contains the instructions and music (dots) for 21 English country dances written by Renée Camus, including Tie the Knot, The Artful Dodsons, As You Were, Wink, Shindig, and the title track, Choreograffiti. The tunes are from many different composers, including Paddy Fahey, Dave Wiesler, Rebecca King, Jon Berger, Sam Sweeney, Owen Morrison, and some traditional tunes, just to name a few. The front matter includes Renée’s dance philosophy, terminology, rankings, a dance planner, and a chart of the figures in each dance.
Accompanying this book is a two-CD set featuring the tunes for all 21 dances, all at danceable lengths and tempos, recorded by some of the English country dance world’s best musicians: Audrey Jaber, Shira Kammen, Chip Prince, Christopher Jacoby, Jim Oakden, and Del Eckels, and produced by Christopher Jacoby. The CDs come in an 8-panel digipak with art and design by Alex Bradley.
With both the book and the CD, you’ll have everything you need for a great evening of English country dance. 🙂
Spiral-bound book: $25
Two-disc CD: $35
Digital book: $20
Digital album download: $30
Get your book and CDs today!
Go to Bandcamp, or email me: camusr6 at gmail dot com.
Christopher Jacoby and your crew of finely chosen musicians have done the fantastic job you were hoping they would. I’m no expert, but with their experience, talent, creativity, knowledge of their instruments and how to play and blend them together (love the inclusion of the banjo!), I think they have created a new sound in the ECD repertoire. Soulful slower tunes, jazzy notes, tunes that are upbeat and make you want to dive in and dance, balance and also variety. Some more traditional, some a bit edgy. You nailed it hiring them! Well done all!
— Alice Williams, caller, Santa Barbara, CA
