George Washington: A Biography in Social Dance

by Kate Van Winkle Keller and Charles Cyril Hendrickson

The dances in this collection commemorate George Washington's life and career. Selected chiefly from 18th-century American sources, they reflect those he may have danced or observed. They are presented with a narrative on each page linking to historical events dance titles such as The Brandywine, Independence Cotillion, The Congress Minuet, Hessian Camp, Washington's Resignation, and The New Constitution. Others are more personal: Mount Vernon, Washington's Reel, The President and The Free Masons. Lady Washington and Saw You My Hero George commemorate Martha Washington. A transcription of Washington's hand-written "Rules of Civility" is included.

Directions for each dance include historically accurate figures, suggested steps, and music with chords. Detailed instructions are also given for 18th-century dance technique, figures, and steps. A complete manual for dancing the minuet is included.

Dances include 6 minuets, 6 cotillions, 49 country dances, 3- and 4-hand reels, jigs for 1 or 2 dancers, and a fancy dance. Also included is the music for Pompey Ran Away Negro Jig, the steps for Durang's Hornpipe and Washington's description of an Iroquois dance. Song lyrics are included for several tunes.

Kate Van Winkle Keller is Executive Director of The Sonneck Society for American Music. Author of bibliographies and studies of 18th-century popular music and social dance, she was co-director of two projects supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities: The National Tune Index: 18th-Century Secular Music (1980) and The Performing Arts in Colonial American Newspapers, 1690-1783 (1997). Choreographer for the film "The Last of the Mohicans," she has also served as consultant to Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, Old Sturbridge Village, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as to contemporary composer John Cage and Daniel Kingman.

Charles Cyril Hendrickson has taught traditional square and country dancing for nearly 50 years. In addition to researching and reconstructing early dances, he has presented programs on early American and English dancing, music, social customs and clothing at schools, libraries, historical societies, museums and cultural centers. He continues his life-long passion of educating others about Native American history, contemporary life and customs. Recent books include Colonial Social Dancing for Children (1995) and English Dances for the Dutch Court, 1755 (1996).

Acknowledgments and Illustrations 

George Washington and Social Dance 

Chronology of George Washington's Life 

Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour

Historically Accurate Movement Minuet 

Original Texts and Notes 

French Tunes Re-barred 

Endnotes and Bibliography 

Index

ISBN 1-877984-09-4

145 Pages