Herrskapsdanser är så jätteroligt

[kareina]

Back in 1795 one of the Luleå gentry started writing a notebook for himself, in which he recorded (at least) musical notes for dances, plus descriptions of the steps. Years flew by, and in 1996 the notebook was rescued from a container outside of a house in Luleå which was being demolished. A few more years flew by, and over the last two years some Swedish dance scholars have been working with the notebook to interpret the dances. Now that they have a number of them ready to dance they are teaching a class in Herrskapsdanser (dances of the gentry) here in Luleå, one Wednesday a month till spring. Tonight was our first session.

They had given a sneak preview of a couple of the dances at the folk music dance course I attended this weekend, which meant that I already knew today's dances, which made it easier to help the others in my set. By some lucky twist of fate we were exactly 24 people tonight, which was perfect, since one of our dances was for four couples in a square set, the other for three couples longways.

The first dance we did is called Gustav Vasa (yes, named for the same Vasa as was the fancy boat in the museum in Stockholm [edited years later to give a link to the music for this dance.]

Gusfaf Vasa

part 1 (to music bars 1-8 (x2)
Four couples in a square: Begin with circling first 16 counts to the left and then 16 back to place.

part 2
(to music bars 9-16)
Head couples into the set for four counts (starting with the left foot) and P.D.R*

then the lord takes the opposite lady (both with right hands) and leads her to stand between the side couples (to result in two lines of four facing one another; ladies next to one another on the right, and lords next to one another on the left)

(to music bars 9-16)
The two lines advance towards one another for four and back to place

Then each line goes to its own right with two steps and back with two more

(to music bars 1-8 (x2)

Then the head couples change places by each taking two small "chasse" steps forward and to the side (lady passing in front of the lord) and P.D.R.

Then they take right hands and he leads her in a small circle kinda in place and back to home.

part 3 (to music bars 1-8 (x2) and 9-16 (x2)
Then everything repeats with the side couples doing it.

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* P.D.R. I didn't catch what the letters stand for, but it means:
put your weight on the left foot while the right heel kicks back behind for the first count,
then the right foot kicks again, forward this time, for the second count,
before putting weight onto the right, while the left foot kicks back behind for the third count,
then the left foot kicks again, forward this time, for the fourth count, before returning to the floor.
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I will have to type up the second dance later, as I am out of time tonight, not only do I work in the morning, but after work I will take the train to Umeå so that I can meet with some folk at the Archaeology department on Friday to discuss the possibility of some collaboration in my upcoming research, since they are my "local" archaeology department here in Sweden.

[edited years later to give a link to the book that has since been published (in Swedish) with some of the dances from this dance manual.]