Duchess of Grafton ~ A. Shaw
Duchess of Grafton ~ A. Shaw is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in about 2012. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 42 bars.
Playford writes:
Note: Each Strain is to be Play'd twice over.The first Man Sett to second Woman, then cast off, and turn the third Woman with his Left-hand quite round, the second Woman at the same Time cast up, and turn the second Man half round The first Woman and second Man Sett and cast off, and lead thro' the third Couple and cast up The first Man takes the second Man by both Hands and pulls him into the second Woman's Place, loose Hands, Sett two steps forward and backward, then take Hands and turn half round, the second Woman at the same Time cast off, and turn the first Woman half round Then Right and Left, the first Couple meet two steps forwards, clap Hands and cast off
Originally a triple minor.
I am uncertain of the provenance of this interpretation. Lambertville claims it is Bentley's interpretation, although it differs from that in significant ways. The video says it was called by Andrew Shaw and is taken from Walsh, 1710 (Bentley says it comes from John Young, also 1710. It is in Young. It might be also in Walsh, I can't tell, nor do I know who stole from whom). It is sufficiently different from Bentley's interpretation (B2, half of A2, and the motion of M2 in A1) that I am including it a separate version.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, cast, lead, rights and lefts (and probably others).
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=DuchessOfGrafton-AShaw
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2012 by Andrew Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.