Messenger - Vol. 1, No. 1, Page 8 Fall 1991 Dancing in time When Jerry Shields' British-born wife, Jane, announced that she'd found a group of English country dancers and wanted to join, Shields offered his usual excuse. "But, honey," he argued, "I have two left feet." This time, the excuse didn't work. "Jane said, 'I'm going with you or without you.' So I went and found myself having a wonderful time," Shields recalls. That was 10 years ago. Today, Shields, an instructor with the University Parallel Program, joins the Dover, Del., English Country Dancers each month to perform dances popular in Georgian England and colonial America. Their names sound odd to 20th-century ears: "The Queen's Jig," "The Old Mole" and "Jack's Maggot"--maggot, in this case, meaning a whimsical idea. Music is live, with instruments ranging from the piano and harpsichord to recorders, dulcimer and fiddles. Shields' two left feet are so nimble now that he is one of the group's demonstration dancers who perform at festivals like the Dickinson Plantation Days in Dover or the Chestertown, Md., Tea Party. The latter event commemorates the night of May 23, 1774, when Chestertown patriots boarded a British freighter and dumped a load of tea overboard in solidarity with some rowdy Boston citizens. Shields dances in knee-length breeches, a frock coat and a linen shirt that make him look as though he's stepped out of the film Tom Jones. The costume was made at Grand Illusions, the Newark, Del., costume shop that specializes in period dress. Country dances popular in Georgian England and colonial America were simplier alternatives to court dances, Shields explains. Formal court dance required learning and practice. Country dances have simple steps, and dancers move in geometric patterns. Hence, the terms circle dance or square dance. "It's nice to look at (the dancers) from above," Shields says. "George Washington is known to have danced," he adds. "In fact, we do a dance called 'George Washington's Favorite.'" Country dances tell you something about 18th-century country culture. "It was a social and communal society where people mingled," Shields says. "Modern dances are for couples. Country dances force you to mix up." To Edith Mroz, Delaware '72M, '88Ph.D., English country dances are as vital today as they were to 18th-century people. New music is being composed today for dancing, she says. Mroz, a musician, and her husband, Winfried, founded the Dover English Country Dancers in 1979 after learning the dances at a music camp near Plymouth, Mass., sponsored by the Country Dance and Song Society of America. "Dancing them once a year was not enough," Mroz says. Mroz is the group's dance mistress and often calls the steps at monthly assemblies. "I get a high from a roomful of people having a grand time," she says. "We're re-enacting a leisure activity--people enjoying themselves." she says. "It was a time when people cleared out the largest room in the house and had the fiddler sit on the window sill so they would have room to dance. Back then, they looked forward to a dance for weeks." Country dancing changed the way Carol Neild, Delaware '78M, looks at the historic houses she loves to tour. Today, she wonders where the owners danced. "Eighteenth- and 19th-century people made accommodations for dancing in their homes," she says. "Even some of the Puritans danced." One 18th-century family, in fact, periodically disassembled the bed in the upstairs master bedroom and cleared the room for dancing. Joining the Dover Country Dancers has given Neild a "taste of life back in slower times. You end up learning, not just about dance, but about all kinds of things." In 1990, Neild spent a glamorous night at the Williamsburg Ball, held at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. "There were more than 130 people on the floor. All but about about six were in magnificent costumes, and the quality of the dancing was fantastic." Dances in 18th-century Dover, however, would have been less formal than those held in colonial American capitols like Philadelphia and Williamsburg. "Today, when the Germantown, Pa., colonial Assembly dances, they dance the minuet step and they have elaborate costumes," Neild says. "We stay down on our feet, and our gowns are mostly made of cotton. That's appropriate. We're based in Dover, which was in the country. Philadelphia was a very sophisticated city." Would Neild have liked life in colonial America? "Yes and no," she says. "It would have been fine if you were part of the landed gentry, but I wouldn't have been. When my ancestors first came to America, they harvested rocks in north central Pennsylvania." --Mary Jo Di Angelo, Delaware '88