Hornpipes and Country Dances with a Famous Navigator Dr Heather Blasdale Clarke’s research began with the discovery of The Transit of Venus in a collection of dances from 1775 1. Inspired by this significant find, she has undertaken extensive studies, tracing Captain Cook’s life, achievements and death through the popular culture of the time. Heather teaches an RSCDS class in Brisbane, Queensland. Captain Cook wisely thought that dancing was of special use to sailors...it was to this practice that he mainly ascribed the sound health which his crew enjoyed... 2 James Cook is considered one of history’s greatest navigators, a man who rose from the humblest of beginnings to become an exceptional scientist, cartographer, and leader. One aspect which has rarely been examined is the music, theatre, and dances that were interwoven through his life and served to venerate him after death. He used music and dance to keep his crew healthy and to establish peaceful communication with people he encountered on his voyages. His own life was celebrated with theatrical productions, and in popular social country dances. In the 18th century dancing was so integral to society that it is possible to follow Cook’s life through the titles of dances. Every year numerous collections of country dances were published reflecting the fame of prominent people, commemorating contemporary events, and recalling noteworthy locations. Many dances from these collections are incorporated in the repertoire of the RSCDS. A biography of Cook encompasses Black Joke, a dance popular in rural Yorkshire where he spent his childhood, Boscawen’s Frolick for his association with Admiral Boscawen’s Fleet in the Atlantic, Nova Scotia for his years in Halifax, and the Mile End Assembly for the dance venue situated next door to his family home in London. As his voyages across the Pacific became famous, dances celebrating his achievements were devised: Transit of Venus, South Seas, Island of Love, Trip to Tahiti and Captain Cook. As was common practice amongst enlightened captains of the time, Cook recognised the health-giving qualities of dancing and utilised them to good effect on his long voyages. According to the historian Carlo Blasis, writing in 1830, Cook, wishing to counteract disease on board his vessels as much as possible, took particular care, in calm weather, to make his sailors and marines dance to the sound of a violin, and it was to this practice that he mainly ascribed the sound health which his crew enjoyed during voyages of several years continuance.2 This corresponds to modern scientific research that endorses dancing as one of the best forms of exercise, helping to maintain good physical, mental and emotional health, including as it does creative expression, co-ordination, musicality and social interaction. For sailors, dancing on board ship was an established tradition and a favourite form of entertainment, serving to relieve the boredom of long voyages. It was more than the drunken frolic that we in the
The dance ‘Captain Cook’ was published in Corri & Dussek’s ‘Twenty four New Country Dances for the Year 1797’ in London and Edinburgh
21st century might imagine; it was a skilful art requiring balance, co-ordination, strength, and endurance. The best sailors were the topmen who climbed high into the rigging and were regarded as the elite in the seamen’s hierarchy - they were also renowned as the most accomplished dancers. Accounts of Cook’s voyages list hornpipes, country dances, and cotillions being danced by his sailors, not simply for their own entertainment but also in cultural exchanges. The ability of sailors to dance added a positive and cheerful tone to encounters with indigenous people. It was a way to reciprocate the islanders’ rituals of greeting and hospitality, and an important aspect when verbal communication was limited. Both sides joined with the others’ dances: the islanders imitating the sailor’s hornpipe with great hilarity, and ultimately excelling their teachers in ‘nimbleness of foot’, while the sailors attempted the facial distortions of some Tahitian dances. On Cook’s third voyage, Lieutenant Rickman recorded: During the dinner, the music, particularly the bag-pipes, with which the Indians seemed most delighted, continued to play, and the young ladies who were within hearing, though out of sight, could hardly refrain from dancing the whole time … After the tables were cleared, the ladies joined the company, and then hornpipes and country dances after the English manner commenced, in which the young ladies joined with great good humour. 3
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