Contra Dance
as an
Intangible Cultural Heritage
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A Study of the Dance
"Delphiniums and Daisies" by Tanya Rotenberg
John Playford's 1651 work The English Dancing Master codified the tunes and movements that made up the tradition of English country dance, one of the most direct predecessors of contra dance. While the meaning and proper execution of the spare dance instructions found in this volume are still debated today, the general form, with its terms and structures, went on to inform how contra dances were notated.
Contra Dance as a Cultural Object
In its most basic form, a contra dance is a series of instructions for dancers to execute particular movements in a certain order, set to music.
Treating each dance written in this system of dance notation as an object that can be cataloged, this portion of the project shows how modified rules for cataloging cultural objects can be applied to a single, well-known example of a contra dance,
"Delphiniums and Daisies," through CCO-style Work and Authority Records.
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The proposed Work Record is an adaptation of the CCO example/standard for Performance Art, which is classified as a time-based work.
Name and Geographic Place Authority Records are based on existing CCO practices.