Circassian Circle ~ Lowes is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Lowe in about 1831 and published in Lowes' Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, Edinburgh. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2023. It is an improper duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Circassia is (or was) a region on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.
In Baltimore in 1820 George Willig Jr. published a dance called "The Circassian" in a pamphlet called Admired Cotillions (in the US the distinction between Quadrilles and Cotillions was often lost, and I think this is actually one set of a quadrille. It isn't in a circle and it is not progressive.
Forward two cross over. Chasse. cross. to place. Balance and turn partner. Ladies Chain. promenade and half right and left to place.
In 1822 in his book The Modern Dancing Master, G.M.S. Chivers introduces a style of dancing he calls "Circassian Circle". He then publishes four dances to be done in this style, none of which is called "Circassian Circle" itself.
Chivers's version is different from the modern way of dancing. At the time, in longways sets, only the top two couples would start dancing, in this circle dance only the two couples closest to the music would start, they would pass each other, and then each would dance with the next couple in their direction of motion. And so on.
Any number of persons can join in the Dance, observing that there is an even number of couples; the odd numbers stand on one side, and the even numbers on the other, forming a circle, thus:The 1st and 2nd couples face each other, who perform the Figure and exchange places: then the 1st and 4th couples, and at the same time, the 2nd and 3rd couples do the same, and so continued all round. Each Dance terminates when all have been through it.Each lady to stand on the right of her partner throughout the Dance. All the odd numbers face the same as No. 1, and the even numbers face the same as No. 2.
Note this is simply a general description of how to dance in a circle. It is followed by four figures for this format. the one which most closely matches the modern version is called "La Daphne":
Right and left set and turn partners ladies chain half pousette into each others place, and turn partners under the arm
The next version I can find is Lowes' Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide (Edinbourgh, ~1831) where they write:
The Circassian Circle
Is a circular Country Dance, for which the party is arranged, as for Quadrilles, across the room; the four at the top commence first, and change sides at the end of the firgures, they continue to repeat them with all the couples down the opposite sides of the room, crossing over at the bottom, and continuing till they arrive at their original places; all the other couples must also continue, after they commence, till they make the circuit of the room; and when all have regained their places, the dance is finished
First Circassian Circle
Ladies chain, set and turn partners, right and left, hands four half round, and turn partners, changing places.
I think the Lowes are describing a hall full of two couple quadrille sets (that is improper duple minor lines), lined up along each side wall of a building. As with Chivers, and in keeping with the staggered start in use for country dances at the time, only one set start dancing, the one at the top, they pass each other, and one moves down the right wall, and one down the left, as they move down the lines the dancers behind them will also start, then when they reach the bottom instead of becoming 2s and working their way up, the cross over to the other line, and work their way up. When they reach the top of the other line they stop and wait until everyone else has reached their original position.
The tune is a traditional one from the US Revolutionary war, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.
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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.
1-8 | Facing the other couple: ladies chain, over and back |
9-12 | Set twice to partner |
13-16 | Partner right hand turn |
17-24 | Facing neighbor: rights and lefts |
25-28 | Circle left half, and fall back |
29-32 | Partner two hand turn once and a half |
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=CircassianCircle-Lowes
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2023 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 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.