Country dance

DEFINITION

A style of English dances popular in the 1600's. These dances were generally cheerful and quick, with couples arranged in lines or in rounds. The dancers would interweave in set patterns of varying complexity. The "rufty-tufty", "black nag", and "hole in the wall" are examples of country dances compiled by John Playford in 1650.A kind of social, or village, dance which originated in England and was taken to France and Germany