Table of Contents

0-9

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
26 Years in 32 Bars		Rachel McDonald 2026		Triple Minor

A

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
All in a Garden Green All in a Garden Green ~ Modern John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019 Colin Hume 3 Couple Longways permutation: 231 All in a Garden Green ~ Playford John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019 Colin Hume 3 Couple Longways

B

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Blew Cap		John Playford 1651 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways
Blew Cap for Me		John Playford 1651 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways
Blue Cap for Me		John Playford 1651 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways
Bonny Jocky ~ Williams		Walsh 1740 George Williams 2024		Triple Minor

E

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Epping Forest		John Playford 1670 Cecil Sharp 1922 Playford Ball	Bare Necessities	3 Couple Circle

H

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Hobb's Wedding		Henry Playford 1695 Colin Hume 2007	Colin Hume	Duple Minor

J

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Jog On		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 Cecil Sharp (mod) 1916		Duple Minor
Jog On, My Honey		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 Cecil Sharp (mod) 1916		Duple Minor
Jogg On		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 Cecil Sharp (mod) 1916		Duple Minor

K

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Kemp's Jigg		John Playford 1651 Douglas & Helen Kennedy (mod) 1929		3 Couple Circle
Kettle Drum		John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019	MGM and Reunion	Square
Kiss Quick Mother's A'Coming ~ Williams		Walsh 1740 George Williams 2024		Triple Minor
A Kissing Dance in the Country Wake		Henry Playford 1695 Colin Hume 2007	Colin Hume	Duple Minor

L

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Last New Vagaries		Henry Playford 1701 Charles Bolton 2000		3 Couple Longways permutation: 312
Love and a Bottle - Bray		Thomas Bray 1699 Anonymous 2001		Duple Minor

M

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Maid in the Moon		John Playford 1670 Cecil Sharp 1922		3 Couple Circle
Mundesse		John Playford 1651 Cecil Sharp 1922	MGM and Reunion	3 Couple Circle

N

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The New Figary		John Playford 1670 Cecil Sharp 1912		Duple Minor

O

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
An Old Man is a Bed Full of Bones		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways
The Old Man with a Bed Full of Bones		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways
An Old Man, a Bed Full of Bones		Lovelace Manuscript ~1649 George Williams 2021		3 Couple Longways

P

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Paul's Steeple		John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019		Duple Minor
Poor Robin's Maggot		Walsh 1710 Andrew Shaw 2000		Duple Minor

S

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
St. Paul's Steeple		John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019		Duple Minor
Staines Morris		John Playford 1651 Cecil Sharp 1911		Longways as many as will
Stanes Morris		John Playford 1651 Cecil Sharp 1911		Longways as many as will

T

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Tom Tinker		John Playford 1651 Scott Pfitzinger ~2019		Duple Minor

W

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Wou'd You have a Young Virgin		Walsh 1710 Andrew Shaw 2000		Duple Minor

Warning: The figures for each dance is generated programmatically by regular expression matching and may be in error. Also, for old dances, they reflect the figures used by the interpreter which may not match those of the deviser.

Kiss

Also known as: Salute.

This figure is a little awkward in the modern world, and modern interpretations rarely include it. Sometimes a continental peck on the cheek is appropriate, or a right, left peck if two kisses are called for. Sometimes I will kiss the lady’s hand. In Kiss me quick, my Mither's coming I find there's only time to blow a kiss… but if you have an understanding with the person in question do what seems best.

History

In the 16th century when a gentleman led a woman out to dance he was expected to kiss her in greeting. You can see an example of this in Shakespeare's Henry VIII I.iv.128-129 when the king leads Anne Boleyn for a dance:

I were unmannerly to take you out
And not to kiss you. (He kisses Anne.) A health, gentlemen!

Both Lovelace and the early Playford dances occasionally have kissing as a figure in the dance, but its use dwindled, and 1710 is the last example I know of in Playford. Kynaston in Doctor Sa__lls Jigg, 1711, has both the 1s kiss their corners. Walsh in The Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master, ~1740 uses it in the dance Kiss Quick, Mother's a'Coming. And Johnson copied this dance a few years later.

Exactly what was kissed is usually not spelled out, but in Paul's Steeple, Playford says the man kisses the woman's hand.

According to the Fletts, the custom popped up again in the Shetland Islands in the nineteenth century, though only at the end of a dance.

The custom of kissing one's partner at the end of a dance was fairly common in Shetland in the old days, and is still not unknown at weddings. According to a description of a Shetland wedding written in 1859 (271), the custom was at that time observed at the end of each dance, but within living memory it took place only two or three times in an evening's dancing, generally at the end of a Shetland Reel. In Walls and Skeld the fiddler sometimes signalized the kisses by running his bow backwards and forwards over the high strings, but elsewhere it was usual for one of the men to shout `kiss the lasses' just as the Reel was coming to an end. The reaction of the girls to this custom is nicely described in an account of a wedding which took place in Scousburgh district in 1837 (275).

`Now the reel ends. "Kiss the lasses," exclaims the lad with the hairy bonnet, and four loud smackes are instantly heard, the lasses giving a twist or two in the arms of their partners, just for appearance sake, . . . this piece of hypocrisy is no fault of theirs, but arises from the tyranny of fashion. Poor things, why should they not like a kiss as well as the other sex? and when we all know so well that they do, how absurd that fashion should force them to appear as if they didn't.

J.P. Flett & T.M Flett Traditional Dancing in Scotland, 1964

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

• Dances I have transcribed

Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.

See Also

• Honour

This website is copyright © 2021-2026 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.