Up a double, Siding, Arming
My Interpretations

Arkansas Traveller Athol Brays Auld Lang Syne The Bath La Belle Anglaise La Belle Anglaise La Belle Frêne Blac Dans Black Dance Black Dance The Bleu Ribbon Blew Cap for Me Blue Bonnets over the Border Blue Breeches The Bonniest Lass in all the World Bonny Kate of Aberdeen Boys and Girls Come Out To Play, The New Way Ca' the Ewes Cadgers in the Canongate The Caledonian Rant Campbel's Frolick Campbel's Frolick Capt. MacBean's Reel Capt. MacBean's Reel Careless Sally The Carnival of Venice Cast a Bell The Cherping of the Lark The Cherping of the Nightingall - Lovelace Cheshire Rounds - Wilson #2 Cheshire Rounds - Wilson #1 Cheshire Rounds - Wilson #1 The Christmas Tale Circassian Circle Crief Fair The Crocked Horn'd Ewe Cromartie's Rant Cuckolds all a Row Culford Heath Camp Cumberland Reel Dainty Davy Ding Dong Bell The Disbanded Officer The Disbanded Officer Donald Bane The Doubtful Shepherd The Duchess's Slipper Dumbarton Drums Dunrobin Castle Ecossoise #2 Edinburgh Castle Epie McNabb Every Lad His Lass The Fair Emigrant Fairy Queen - Young The Festival Fiddle Faddle The Firr Tree The First of December The First of January The First of January The French Ambassador The French Ambassador French Four The Gates of Edinburgh George's Maggot #1 George's Maggot #2 George's Maggot #2 Glasgow Lasses The Gloucester - Chivers Gordian Knot - Saltator Grant's Rant Grant's Rant Grant's Reel Green Grow the Rushes O? Green Grow the Rushes O? The Guaracha Guardian Angels The Hamiltonian The Hamiltonian Hamstead Heath #2 Hamstead Heath #2 Hamstead Heath #2 Haste to the Wedding The Haughs of Cromdale Have at thy Coat, Old Woman He'll Aye Be Welcome Back Again Hooper's Jigg Hooper's Jigg Hunt the Squirrel The Infare The Isle of Skye Jack Pudding Jackey Tarr Jemmey's Fancy Jenny's Bawbee John Black's Daughter Keppel's Delight Keppoch's Rant Kiss Quick Mother's A'Coming The Knot L'Organiste Lady Baird's Reel Lady George Murray's Reel Lady George Murray's Reel Lady Harriet Hope's Reel Lady Jane Murray's Rant Lady Jean Murray's Dance Lady Lye near Me Lady Mary Douglas Lady McIntosh's Rant The Lady's Triumph Lamb Skinnet The Lasses of Dunse The Lassie in the Yellow Coatie Leister House Let Glasgow Flourish Linnen Hall Linnen Hall Lochiel's Rant Lord Dalkeith's Reel Lord Hume's Reel The Machine without Horses The Maid in the Mill Mall Peatly Marchioness of Blandford's Reel Margravine's Waltz The Marlborough - Playford Masquerade Royal Masquerade Royal Maxwill's Rant Maxwill's Rant Menzies Rant The Merry Haymakers The Milk-maid's Bob Millison's Jigg Miss Clemy Stewart's Reel - Williams Miss Devon's Reel Miss Dolland's Delight Miss Nancy Frowns The Monckton The Monckton Money in Both Pockets - Preston Montgomerie's Rant Mountain Hornpipe Mrs. Lt. Colonel Johnson's Reel Mrs. Wilson's Hornpipe Mungo's Delight Mungo's Delight My Only Joe & Deary O None So Pretty - Campbell None So Pretty - Wilson Nonesuch The Nut Off She Goes Old Dan Tucker An Old Man, a Bed Full of Bones Open the Door to Three - Menzies Paddy Whack Paston's Maggot Peace and Plenty Peggy's Love Pop Goes The Weasel Portland Fancy Pretty Nun The Princess 1721 Push about the Jorum Quiet and Snug Rachel Rae The Rainbow Rakish Highlandman The Reel of Glamis Roger de Coverley Roger of Coverly - Playford Roger of Coverly - Thompson The Scotch Ramble Scotland She's Over Young to Marry Yet Sicilian The Siege of Belgrade Siege of Buda The Silver Faulken Softly Robin Soldier Ladie A Soldier's Life Stock-Jobbers The Sword Dance, 1702 Tea for Two The Tempest The Thatch'd House There's Nae Luck About the House - Williams Thomas You Cannot A Trip to Aberdeen A Trip to Bengall A Trip to Pancridge A Trip to Pancridge The Triumph The Walton Well's Humour Well's Humour What a Beau Your Granny Was What You Please - Skillern What You Please - Skillern/Duple White Cockade - Saltator Willie with his Tartan Trews Ye Social Powers Young Roger - Playford The Young Widow - Fentum Zorinsky

Why are interpretations needed?

Playford (Young, Walsh, Thompson, etc.) did not write for modern readers, he wrote for his contemporaries and he used technical dance terms which made sense to them but whose meanings are lost in the mists of time to us.

What, for instance, does All Sides mean? When Cecil Sharp came across the term he had no idea. So he made a guess. Later he made a different guess. Is either one right? We have no idea. Dances work with either interpretation of the phrase, but what Restoration era dancers actually were dancing will remain a mystery.

Even worse than that Playford seems to have assumed that his readers just needed hints. In the dance Row Well Ye Mariners he describes the dance thusly:

Lead up a D. forwards and back · That again : First man two slips cross the Room one way, the woman the other · Back again to your places : Fall back both · Meet again : Clap both your own hands, then clap each other's right-hands against one another's; clap both your own hands again, then clap left-hands, then clap both hands again, then clap your breasts, then meet both your hands against one-another · The same again, only clap left-hands first :

First man sides with the next wo. and his wo. with the next man, doing the like till you come to your own places, the rest following and doing the same.

The dance consists of two 16 bar parts. The first is well defined, but for the second we have only that people should "side" (whatever that is) with their neighbors and then (somehow) progress. Now siding is a move which takes 4 bars and leaves one where one started. It does not progress and it leaves 12 bars of music unaccounted for.

So anyone attempting to interpret this dance will have to make up 12 bars of filler including some sort of progression.

Playford does not seem to have employed a proof reader. He makes errors. Some of his descriptions simply don't make sense. If you follow his directions you end in the wrong place, or get there too late, or too early. Sometimes someone will look at what seems like nonsense and realize that there is a valid interpretation we just haven't understood it, but frequently Playford is just wrong and the interpreter must figure out what to throw out and what to retain and what to change.

Why do I make interpretations?

Colin Hume points out that there are thousands of uninterpreted dances from the past and most aren't worth dancing.

I do not claim to be a particularly good interpreter, and it is perhaps presumptuous to try. So feel free to ignore this page and go on to better things.

I have chosen to interpret dances for several reasons:

I should add that, as I write, none of these interpretations has actually been danced by a living person (I am doing this during COVID). The fact that I can animate the dance is no proof that a person could actually dance it, nor that they would want to.

Copyrights and such

The originals for these dances are out of copyright. My interpretations are under copyright, but I release them under a Creative Commons License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which means that you are free to use them, but should mention my name if you do so.

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