Silly Old Man
Silly Old Man is an English Country Dance. It was published by Wright in 1740 in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, Vol. 1. It was interpreted by Bob Lilley in about 2023 and published in Bob Lilley's Nightmarish (and Other) Dances. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. Someone thought this dance was Intermediate.
Wright writes:
The 1st Man & 2d Wo. clap Hands with each other & turn single, then right & left half round The other Cu. do the same Then cross over and half Figure The lead thro' the Bottom and thro' the Top, cast off and turn
Wright's music consists of two 6 bar jig strains, both repeated.
Lilley mentions that the almost same figure (in the same words) occurs in Playford (1710) under the title: New Anything.
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The first Man and 2d Women clap Hands with each other and turn single, the Right and Left half roundThis to the first Strain play'd once The other Couple do the same This to the first Strain play'd twice Then cross over and half Figure. This to the last Strain play'd once Then lead through the Bottom, and through the Top, and cast off and turn. This to the second Strain play'd twice
Playford's music consists of two 8 bar reel strains, both repeated.
Lilley does not date his interpretations.
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: turn single, cast, lead, figure eight, rights and lefts, cast and lead, lead and cast, cross go below (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=SillyOldMan
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2023 by Bob Lilley. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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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.