6 for the Six Proud Walkers

The term "dance pattern," by which Fried Herman meant "a dance intended to be used as a teaching tool," first appears in her 1995 publication Ease & Elegance. She published more than a dozen of them in that volume, including the title dance itself, the Chocolate Round O, and, most memorably, 12 patterns named for the verses in Green Grow the Rushes, Oh! Appearing just before the instructions for this set of 12 is a table listing 50 common and not-so-common ECD dance terms, moves, and figures, with an indication as to which ones appear in which of the 12 Green Grow the Rushes, Oh! dance patterns. This is a valuable resource for teachers of English country dancing. In 6 for the Six Proud Walkers, gates figure most prominently, followed by double, full figure 8s. There are many things to say about gates: that they are a weighted figure, like a turn; that the dancers move in a single plane around the joined hands, which act as a pivot point; that both dancers move in unison, one moving forward, the other back; and so on. Fried always emphasized that in a gate, one makes eye contact with the person across the set with whom one is gating (usually, but not always, one's partner). In the figure 8, she made the same observation, that the dancers crossing up or down the center make eye contact. The dancer who precedes partner into this move invites the partner, with a backward glance, to join in. To show the real character of 6 for the Six Proud Walkers ("rousing" is how Fried described it), I asked, with some trepidation, that the dancers in front of the camera use a a skip change of step in the double figure 8s. They were tired, they had danced at a high level and with great concentration through an entire, challenging weekend, and in this last dance of the closing session on Sunday afternoon they outdid themselves. And how could they not, given the rousing music provided by A Joyful Noise. I am greatly in debt to both dancers and musicians. 6 for the Six Proud Walkers was the final dance of the Lenox Assembly, chosen for its good energy and, to be frank, for the title of its tune: "Fried's Triumph," by her frequent collaborator, the late British tune smith John Stapledon. Not that Fried triumphs in this or any other dance; only that as an aspiration, the Lenox Assembly was devoted to giving her take on ECD the prominence and wider acceptance that it deserves. --Paul Ross