English Country Dance (ECD)

The ECD list is for discussion of all aspects of modern and historical English Country Dance and related forms as they have relevance to the discussion. (Related forms include contra, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, contradanza, Victorian longways dances, quadrilles, cotillions, etc.) .The list is intended for callers, dancers, organizers, and musicians, who are all part of one community.

We discuss a wide variety of topics including:

• Requests for PDFS of music (shared off-list)
• Publications and recordings
• Requests for suggestions for themed evenings
• Questions about interpretation of dance notation (and questionable interpretations)
• Travelers announcing that they’ll be in an area some time in the future and looking for dances to attend or to call.
• Announcements of events.
• Plain-text notation for new dances you’ve written or newly interpreted.  

Note that Shared Weight has separate lists for all traditional dance organizers, all musicians, contra callers, etc.  Those involved with ECD may enjoy those other lists as well.

– Alan Winston, list founder

From Alan Winston (list founder): Somebody on the rec.folk-dancing newsgroup suggested in 1994 that there should be a mailing list specifically for English Country Dancing, and I realized I had the technology available to do it for free, and enough questions and discussion points that I’d find the list a good resource for my own purposes. My experience on Usenet had let me know that moderator action was sometimes necessary but I very much preferred a light hand, and still do. The list ran for many years on my desktop workstation computer (running OpenVMS and the MX mailing list software); I wired up various things so we could have a digest and an archive.  The Bay Area Country Dance Society agreed to host the list in 2009, using mailman on Linux, and after the great SPD debacle of 2017 the BACDS Web Committee worked very hard to upgrade a far-out-of-date system so that we could run a current version of mailman and stop having everybody from Yahoo get unsubscribed whenever anybody from Yahoo posted.  The list has been doing well at BACDS, but since it has international membership it makes more sense to join sharedweight and be supported by CDSS which has at least continental scope.  Much gratitude to BACDS for years of hosting.

The list moderator (manager) is: Alan Winston.

You can subscribe to the ECD list in one of two ways:

1. Signing up for a Shared Weight account prior to subscribing.
2. Subscribing without creating an account.

Creating an account takes a few more steps but they are quick and having an account has definite advantages:

• You can manage your Shared Weight messages (e.g., sign up to receive the digest version – helpful if you want to limit the number of emails in your inbox).
• The ECD list archives (a VERY helpful resource!) are only accessible through logging in with your account.

Follow these steps to subscribe with an account:

1. Visit https://lists.sharedweight.net/postorius/lists/ 
2. Click ‘Sign Up’ in the top right corner. Then follow the instructions to create an account. Note –> your username can’t have a space.
3. Check your email inbox and follow the instructions in the confirmation email. This will lead you to the login page.
4. Once you are logged in, click on the list you want to join and then click  ‘Subscribe’. 
   Note -> You can use the same account to subscribe to more than one list!
   Add your email address. We highly recommend that you also add your name – the Shared Weight lists are a supportive community and it’s good for folks to know who you are! 
5. Click subscribe.
6. One you have a Shared Weight account and have subscribed to the list(s), you can manage your settings.  Check out our technical FAQ page.

The ECD archive is private  (i.e., only accessible to those subscribed to the list).

If you are a list member, you can access the archive by visiting this link.

FAQs specific to the ECD list are coming soon.

In the meantime, if you have technical questions about how the list works, please check out the technical FAQ page.  If you still haven’t found the answer to your question, email the list moderator –  Alan Winston.