Lavena

The Passionate Lovers

Lavena or The Passionate Lovers is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfitzinger (website) in about 2019. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a USA dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

Playford writes:
Lead up all a D. forwards and back, set and turn S. That again The first Cu. go down between the 2. cast off and come to your places on the outside of the 2. turn your own, fall into the 2 place again ·: As much to the 3. place, and so to the last, the rest following.
Sides all, set and turn S. That again First Cu. go down on the outside each on the d2. back again, fall into the 2. place and turn your own ·: Do this to the last, the rest following and doing the like.
Amrs all, set and turn S. That again First Cu. cast off, fall into the 2. place, come up between the 2. cast off again, fall into the 2. place, turn your own ·: Do this to the last, the rest following.

Playford is not clear how the 1s are to fall into the 2. place in part 2. Scott Pfitzinger suggests they slip down inside the 2s and that seems as likely as anything.

I have organized this dance differently than Playford did. The dance consists of the standard three introductions (up a double, siding, and arming) each followed by set and turn single, and a progressive sequence. In each sequence would run until everyone was back where s/he started, then the next sequence. Instead, I cycle through the three parts instead of letting each part run to completion.

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 transcriptions and interpretations of Playford dances found on http://playforddances.com/ from the various editions of The Dancing Master are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

I.A11-4Up a Double, back
I.A21-4Partners set and turn single
I.A31-4Up a Double, back (repeat)
I.A41-4Set and turn single
II.A11-4Side right
II.A21-4Partners set and turn single
II.A31-4Side left
II.A41-4Partners set and turn single
III.A11-4Right Arming
III.A21-4Partners set and turn single
III.A31-4Left Arming
III.A41-4Partners set and turn single
I.B11-41s lead below 2s and cast back to place
I.B21-41s two hand spiral down as 2s cast up
II.B11-41s slip outside and below stationary 2s, and slip back up
II.B21-21s slip down inside as 2s slip up outside
3-41s quick two hand turn
III.B11-21s cast down as 2s lead up
3-61s lead above 2s and cast back to place
7-81s quick two hand turn

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=Lavena

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2019 by Scott Pfitzinger. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License 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.