New Hampshire Old-Time Country Dance Web Site

Comparing the Dance Programs

There are many ways that these dance programs could be compared. I should start by acknowledging that two dances is a small sample, and any comparisons might not hold up across a larger sample of dance programs. As I’ve said elsewhere my background is in behavioral psychology, and my analyses are therefore different than one made by an ethnomusicologist.

I think there are two types of comparisons that I’d like to make: general comparisons of characteristics of the programs and comparisons of how specific dances fit into the programs. I will continue to use this approach when I look at programs from other callers.

General Program Comparison

Let’s look at the overall pattern of dances in these two programs. Keep in mind that the Fitzwilliam dance was likely to be his last New Hampshire dance, and he tried to fit in as much as he could. For example, the eighth dance of the evening was Red River Valley; but in fact, he called all three versions of it that he knew. Also, although no final waltz is shown for Peterborough, it almost certainly happened even if it didn’t get recorded.

At the Peterborough dance he nearly always called squares in groups of three. In Fitzwilliam he was less predictable. There are three sets of two squares, one set of three squares, and a final set of four squares. This may reflect the more general pattern of calling squares in groups of three at the time of the earlier dance, which by 1981 had largely evolved to calling squares in sets of two.

In general he called sets of squares separated by one or two contras and one or two couples dances. There doesn’t seem to be any clear order of contras and couples dances in either dance. But the end result was a surprisingly similar distribution of dances, as shown in the following table.

Looking at the contras, in the Peterborough dance five of the six were older dances that could be considered chestnuts. In Fitzwilliam five of the seven would fit that category.

It’s a bit harder to classify the squares as most are newer and a couple may have been fairly new when called. But I’d say nine of the squares called in Peterborough would be considered old favorites by many long-time New Hampshire dancers today, and at least eight of the squares called in Fitzwilliam would fit that category. In part that’s because Duke made some of them into old favorites after calling them for thirty years in Fitzwilliam, and Ralph Page also contributed to bringing about that status for a few of the dances.

For couples dances, in Peterborough he did Road to the Isles, four polkas and a waltz. In Fitzwilliam he did six different couples dances with no repetition, some of which are rarely done today. Most modern contradances do a final waltz, maybe a waltz before the break, and maybe a polka.

Specific Dance Comparisons

We can compare the programs in terms of actual dances called, and then we can look at whether dances occupied similar slots in the program.

Five dances occupied identical slots in both dances. Lady Walpole’s Reel was always first at Duke’s dances (and Ralph Page’s dances, and usually at my dances), always done to the Fireman’s Reel. Money Musk was always the first dance after the break, a tradition that still holds to some extent in New Hampshire. And Darling Nelly Gray was always the last called dance of the evening. Ralph Page also called Money Musk and Darling Nelly Gray in those positions too.

Crooked Stovepipe and Life on the Ocean Wave were second and third in both dances. I’m not sure if that was as consistent as some of the other patterns, but I believe that was a common position for those dances. That has not persisted, although the two dances are still sometimes called together. Overall Crooked Stovepipe is called more frequently today. I think the order has tended to be reversed though.

Beyond those dances, the rest of the program differed considerably for the two dances. The following dances, all squares, were called both in Peterborough and in Fitzwilliam:

• Grand Square, to the Maple Leaf Two-Step
• Smoke on the Water
• Red River Valley

This surprised me somewhat, as Duke had the reputation for calling a fairly repetitive program. Most likely there was more repetition among Fitzwilliam dances over the course of a summer. But the program changed over the years, and without looking at actual data it would be easy as a dancer to think there was more repetition than actually occurred. Some spots in the evening were reliably filled by the same dances (e.g. first and last dances, after the break), and many of the dances that changed probably came from a relatively small pool of chestnut contras and favorite squares.

At the Fitzwilliam dance Smoke on the Water came to be done together with Just Because. That tradition was carried on by Tod Whittemore, who later added in Maple Sugar Gal. The order was nearly always Smoke on the Water followed by Just Because, and Maple Sugar Gal was added on at the beginning. Tod would call the dances far enough into the evening that by the time he got to Just Because he was able to call without any walkthrough.