Spanish Country Dance ~ Lowe
Spanish Country Dance ~ Lowe is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Joseph Lowe in about 1850 and published in Lowe's Selection of Popular Country Dances. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2024. It is an improper duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 48 bars. The tune is a waltz.
Lowe writes: (courtesy of the National Library of Scotland)
Before commencing this dance, each Lady and Gentleman, as they arrive at the top have to change places, the Ladies then down down on the Gentlemens side, and the Gentleman on the Ladies side, they resume their own sides when at the foot of the dance.FIGUREThe first and second couples Balancez on the sides of the dance, and change places. (4 Bars) They again Balancez and change places across the dance. (4 Bars) Again on the sides. (4 Bars) And again across. (4 Bars) The same figure repeated, joining hands round, and turning the Lady with both hands in changing places. (16 Bars) Then pousette, Waltzing round each other. (16 Bars)
Lowe's music is in 3/8 time and consists of three 8 bar strains, all marked as repeating, and the last as D.C.
Hillgrove, in New York, 1857, published a slightly different version of this dance: He recommends dancing it in a sicilian/circassian circle, and the final figure has the couples promenading round each other rather than waltzing.
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 dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-2 | Take hands with partner, balance forward and back |
| 3-4 | Drop hands, pass through, and face partner | |
| 5-6 | Take hands with neighbor, balance forward and back | |
| 7-8 | Drop hands, pass through, and face neighbor (Now in corner's place) | |
| A2 | 1-2 | Take hands with partner, balance forward and back |
| 3-4 | Drop hands, pass through, and face partner | |
| 5-6 | Take hands with neighbor, balance forward and back | |
| 7-8 | Drop hands, pass through, and face neighbor (All home) | |
| B1 | 1-2 | Take hands with partner, balance forward and back |
| 3-4 | Neighbor two hand turn half | |
| 5-6 | Take hands with neighbor, balance forward and back | |
| 7-8 | Partner two hand turn half (Now in corner's place) | |
| B2 | 1-2 | Take hands with partner, balance forward and back |
| 3-4 | Drop hands, pass through, and face partner | |
| 5-6 | Take hands with neighbor, balance forward and back | |
| 7-8 | Partner two hand turn half (end close, ready to waltz) | |
| C1+2 | 1-16 | Waltz poussette (partners waltz around the other couple to progressed places |
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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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2024 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 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.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.