Pine Mountain Settlement School
Blog: DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH  

TAGS: English Country Dancing, Pine Mountain Settlement School, Harlan County, Kentucky, dancing, recreation, folk dancing, set running, party games, Kentucky Running Set, Cecil Sharp, Maude Karpeles, Phil Jamison, Dorothy Bolles, Abby Winch Christensen, Dorothy Nace, Mary Rogers, Berea College Country Dancers, Berea College, Arthur Dodd, Glyn Morris, 

ENGLISH COUNTRY DANCING
AT PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL

English Country Dance crept into the Pine Mountain Valley like the bright green of Spring time creeps up the North flank of the mountain — slowly. Dance in the valley was not unknown in the first decades of the twentieth century, but the gentility of English Country Dance was unknown. Anywhere there was a large community gathering in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky there were “parties” and “party games” and often “set-running.” Churches were largely opposed to “dancing” but “party games” were often accepted. In the more strict religious sects, dance had always been forbidden. Dancing was seen as the work of the devil, but so was moonshine, but never guns.

In the Pine Mountain Valley, many in the community had been “dancing” most of their lives. The dance most favored was one later called the Kentucky Running Set. It was a fast-paced, vigorous and lengthy series of maneuvers which were rhythmically called out by a leader. According to Phil Jamison, in his 2015 book, Hoedowns, Reels, and Frolics: Roots and Branches of Southern Appalachian Dance, pp.72-73, the idea of a “Running Set” is not as intuitive as it seems. A noted North Carolina dance historian, dancer and set caller, Jamison suggests that the term “set” has several definitions.

In the seventeenth century, for example, a “set” was used to describe a series of simple steps in place to one’s partner, as in the action to “set” to a partner before turning. Jamison. however, also conjectures that Karpeles and Sharp conflated the meaning with another “set”, that of a composition of figures, such as Jamison’s suggestion, “a ‘set of Quadrilles.'” Further, French dances that had many parts were referred to as “sets”. This last description of a set given by Jamison, suggests to him that the use of the term is associated with the idea of a Quadrille “set” and this seems to be confirmed in the appearance of the term and idea in the Southern Appalachians. Strengthening his argument for a French connection with the Quadrille, he quotes Karpeles from an article, “Some Additional Figures for Set Running,” In the Journal of the English Folk Dance Society 2, no. 3 (1930): 39-50.

“It is very probable that the word ‘set’ implies a ‘set of figures,’ in the way that it is customary to speak of a ‘set of Quadrilles.'”

As for “running” Jamison conjectures that it has its origins in Scotland. In dances, particularly the reel, where “running a set” was a common description of the dance pattern.

It was this “dance,” this running of sets, that surprised and charmed one of the world’s leading instructors of English Country Dance when he first viewed it at Pine Mountain. The dance form had been observed by visitors to the School and commented on by the staff when visiting on fundraising trips to the North East. And when Cecil Sharp came to America, it was recommended by English Country Dance lovers in the North East that Sharp come listen to the ballad singers and see what the remote people in Eastern Kentucky had retained of old English forms of entertainment in song and dance. Pine Mountain gave Cecil Sharp a gift, and Cecil Sharp left a gift for the School — English Country Dancing. 

Cecil Sharp‘s discoveries at the School were well described in his book. English folk songs from the southern Appalachians, collected by Cecil J. Sharp; comprising two hundred and seventy-four songs and ballads with nine hundred and sixty-eight tunes, including thirty-nine tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell, edited by Maud Karpeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932. The book, dedicated to William Creech, the donor of the land for the Pine Mountain Settlement School remains a testimony of a mutual fondness for the culture of the Southern Appalachians. When Cecil Sharp came to the School along with his secretary, Maud Karpeles, he witnessed a joyful and energetic community of set runners and when he left, he set a tradition for the inclusion of English Country Dancing in annual celebrations and in the school’s educational program.

GALLERY I: DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH English Country Dancing at PMSS

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Some English Country Dancers may recognize formations that readily suggest the named dance being performed. Most will not. Many times the dance forms overlap and are incorporated in a new dance with new sequences and new rhythms. Few English Country Dancers,  will, however, fail to recognize the familiar names of the dances.

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RECORDINGS:  COUNTRY DANCE MUSIC LIST RECOMMENDED BY  DOROTHY BOLLES

When Pine Mountain Settlement School was organizing its dance programs they borrowed heavily from the Boston Center music and dances. Dorothy Bolles, the link in that important chain of influence, supplied the School with a list of available music for English Country dancing.

Here is her list of “His Master’s Voice, Gramophone Records” most of which were collected by Pine Mountain or were played on the piano by Arthur Dodd and accompanied by Glyn Morris on violin or by fiddlers in the community.

All records are 12″ and 4/6

I.D #	Titles
C 1644	Apley House Old Noll’s Jig
C 1645	Seed the Plough Pop Goes the Weasel
C 1646	The Triumph The Twenty-ninth of May
C1263	Nancy’s Fancy Tink a Tink
C1264	Flowers of Edinburgh Christchurch Bells
C 1265	Childgrove Sage Leaf
C 1266	Mr. Beaveridge’s Maggot Jack’s Maggot
C 1072	Brighton Camp The Ribbon Dance
C1073	My Lady Cullen Bonnets So Blue
C 1074	The Mary and Dorothy Haste to the Wedding
B 2954	Oaken Leaves Mage on a Cree Hey Boys Up Go We
B 2955	Newcastle Jenny Pluck Pears
B 2956	The Old Mole Shepherd’s HOliday Parson’s Farewell
B 2957	The Phoenix St. Martins
B 2958	Lady Speller Rufty Tufty The Maid Peeped Out at the Window
B 2959	The Merry Merry Milkmaids If All the World Were Paper The Black Nag
B 5071	Galopede We Won’t Go Home Till Morning
B 1370	Scotch Cap The Boatman Picking Up Sticks
B 1371	Chelsea Reach The Lady in the Dark Confess
B 1372	Argeers Broom, the Bonny Bonny Broom Oranges and Lemons
9769	Helston Furry Indian Queen
5503	Fourpence Halfpenny Farthing Lilli Burlero
5504	Epping Forest Gathering Peascods
B 1193	Three Mewt The Butterfly
B 1194	Goddesses Hudson House
5505	Picking Up Sticks Newcastle
5434	Haste to the Wedding Bonnets So Blue
5733	Hey Boys Up Go We Rufty Tufty Mage on a Cree Parsons Farewell
5734	Sellinger’s Round The Black Nag If All the World Were Paper
DB 82	Dick’s Maggot  (orch.) Nonesuch
DB 84	The Fine Companion Hit and Miss The Beggar Boy Heartsease
DB 182	Oranges and Lemons Grimstock Hyde Park
DB 183	Never Love Thee More The Maid in the Moon Chestnut
	COLUMBIA (Morris Jigs and Running Set)
DB 226	Jackie to the Fair  (Violin E. Avril) Old Mother Oxford  (Violin E. Avril) The Fool’s Jig  (Pipe and Tabor/ J. Sharp) Old Woman Tossed Up (Pipe and Tabor/ J. Sharp)
DB227	Running Set  (Violin E. Avril) Ladies Pleasure  (Pipe and Tabor/ J. Sharp) None So Pretty
	COLUMBIA  (Sword Dances)
9800	Flamborough Kirkby Malzeard (Folk Songs)
DB ?	I  Will Give My Love An Apple  (Clive Carey) Oh Sally My Dear  (Clive Carey) My Billy Boy  (Clive Carey) The Lover’s Tasks  (Clive Carey)
DB 336	A Farmer’s Son So Sweet  (Annete Blackwell) As I Sat On A Sunny Bank  (Annete Blackwell) Dance to Your Daddy  (Annete Blackwell)

 SEE:

DANCING IN THE CABBAGE PATCH  English Country Dancing at Pine Mountain Settlement School

CECIL SHARP AND MAUD KARPELES VISIT TO PMSS

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