Pea Straw
Pea Straw is an American Country Dance. It was devised by M.J.C. Fraisier in 1796 and published in The Scholar's Companion. It was interpreted by James E. Morrison in 1976 and published in Twenty Four Early American Country Dances, Cotillions & Reels for the Year 1976. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 16 bars.
Fraisier writes:
The 1st cou. cast off, 1st gent. cast off again and enter the set, 1st lady return to your place and enter the set too, 1st gent. allemande to your partner with the right hand, then to the 3rd lady with the left, and your partner to 1st gent. then to your partner again with the left hand, and your partner allemande next with 3rd gent. and the first gent. to 2nd lady, then turn 3rd lady, then the 2nd and swing outside holding your partner with both hands.
Can one really get into allemande position, and do a full turn all in 4 counts of music? This seems unlikely to me. I'd be happier just doing a single hand turn, and even that is on the fast side.
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), cast, lead (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=PeaStraw
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1976 by James E. Morrison. 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.