Colin Hume

COLIN HUME started his folk career as a singer/guitarist, and has performed his own songs on radio and at the Royal Albert Hall. He then discovered Folk Dancing. Over many years he has built up a reputation as a caller of American Squares, Playford-type dances (English Country Dances in 17th century style), and his own "Dances with a Difference", many of which contain unusual combinations of figures to baffle and/or delight the dancers. His tunes are also different enough to make most bands stop and think. He has published five volumes of "Dances with a Difference", three with corresponding recordings, two volume of the American-style "Squares with a Difference", and one "New Dances for Old" of Playford-style dances to existing recorded tunes. His book "Playford with a Difference" contains his own interpretations of a number of country dances published in the 17th and 18th century by John Playford and others, and is unique in giving the original wording plus discussion of the various possible meanings of the descriptions and a justification of how he comes up with his own reconstruction. His versions are now danced on both sides of the Atlantic, and he leads workshops on the subject. He has now stopped publishing books in favour of his website http://colimnhume.com which contains original dances, interpretations, essays, dance technique notes, over 1,000 tunes which you can print out or listen to, a Callers' Course, and many other items. He also tries to persuade dancers to dance with more style, and was one of the founders of GUSTO - the Grand Union Structured Training Organisation - which for a while ran training courses for EFDSS (English Folk Dance and Song Society). Colin calls at many Folk Festivals and Folk Dance Clubs, and for nine years helped run the "Beginners" sessions at Cecil Sharp House in London every Thursday. He has called at Folk Dance courses in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Canada, and for Dance Weeks in the U.S.A. at Pinewoods in Massachussetts, Mendocino in California, Brasstown in North Carolina and Buffalo Gap in West Virginia, plus a week of Dancing down the Nile in Egypt. For many years he contributed a regular column to the EFDSS magazine "English Dance & Song", containing his thoughts on many aspects of the Folk Dance world plus dances by himself or others. Colin is too outspoken to be everyone's favourite caller, but will appeal to dancers who appreciate an entertaining session including some fairly complicated dances without the reverential attitude to Playford, Tradition or EFDSS that some people adopt.