Lady Round the Lady - Ford
Lady Round the Lady - Ford is a Square Dance. It was published by Benjamin B Lovett in 1925 in Good Morning: Music, Calls and Directions for Old-Time Dancing as Revived by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford. It is a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 256 bars.
Good Morning was originally published in 1925, my version was printed in 1943.
Lovett writes
For it's lady round the lady and the gent around the gent.
(head couple leads to right and passes through that couple, lady passing to the left around the lady and gentleman passing right around the gentleman)2 bars And the gent around the lady and the lady around the gent
(reverse the order, gentleman passing around the lady.)2 bars Four hands half, half right and left
(The two couples join hands and circle half around, executing half right and left to places)2 bars Swing your lady once around and lead up to the next
(the same couple leads to the next, repeating until movement has been completed with the next couple)2 bars Allemande left, grand right and left 16 bars Next couple leads to the right, continuing until each couple has gone through movement.
Lovett does not mention an introduction, only the allemande/grand right and left chorus which finishes each couple's turn. Lovett's definition of grand right and left is:
GRAND RIGHT AND LEFT — (16) Face partner and salute, and join right hands, moving in opposite directions. Gentleman drops his partners right hand takes next lady's left in his left, nest with right and so on. (this is a movement in which the two lines moving in opposite directions, weave in and out). When half around he meets and salutes his partner, gives his right hand and continues to place. (In saluting and meeting, saluting precedes taking of hands).
In other words, the term "grand right and left" includes a promenade home"
Ralph Page has a version of this in the Oct, 1956 issue of Northern Junket where the "circle half, half rights and lefts" is replaced by a half right and left six (a version of rights and lefts for 3 couples, so it included the 4s as well as the 2s). The 3s get a different figure
RIGHT AND LEFT (8) Executed by two opposite couples. Couples cross over (ladies passing between), join left hands, and turn half around so that each couple stands in the other's place. Repeat back to places, ending with both couples in original positions.
Lovett distinguishes between "turn partner" which is a two hand turn and "swing partner" which is done in ballroom position, and presumably is what a modern square dancer would assume swing to mean.
TURN PARTNERS—(4) Lady and gentlemen join both hands (shoulder high) and turn once around. To swing partner in waltz position, weight of body should rest on half of right foot, turning with toe of left foot.
The tune was published by Ralph Page in Horthern Junket with the dance. Colin Hume's software synthesized the music.
The animation plays at 115 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.
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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.
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https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=LadyRoundTheLady-Ford
The dance is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.