The Marple Bridge Rose, or, A Flower for Pauline

Marple Bridge Rose, or, A Flower for Pauline, a 3-couple dance by Philippe Callens, is one of a very few country dances that incorporate a canon-like movement in the choreography. Pat Shaw’s John Tallis’s Canon and Mr Ganiford’s Maggot are the most well known examples. Less familiar is Fried Herman’s Marty Stouffer’s Wild American, published in The Naked Truth.

Philippe’s dance, which was begun in 2008 and revised in 2011, appears in its final form in his book Seasons of Invention and is dedicated to Pauline Rutter, who lives with her husband Piers in Marple Bridge, near Manchester, England. The tune, so poignant and expressive of the choreography, is by Jonathan Jensen and is here played at the home of dancer and dear friend Jackie Algon by two extraordinarily talented musicians: Naomi Morse on violin and Chip Prince on piano.

Philippe’s vision of the canon in the B music is very precise. The first half of the right-hand turn performed by the 1s is interrupted by bringing the feet together for a pause—a kind of punctuation that defines the move as a separate building block in the canonic structure. The hands-6 moves for 3 bars—and no less—with the turn single taking just a single bar. It’s a pleasure to see the dancers in this video achieving that precision with such ease and elegance. –Paul Ross