Flying Stagg

Straight & Skillern write:

Hands across the same Back again Cross over 1 Cu. foot it Right and left at top

The music consists of 2 four bar strains in cut time.

The book we have was published in ~1775, but there are indications in the text that this dance was from a previous book published 1770.

The A part of the dance is pretty clear, star right, then star left.

But Cross over 1 Cu. foot it, can that really be done in 4 bars? "Cross over 1 Cu." usually takes 4 bars, but if you can do a circular hey in four bars, then you should be able do to half of one (which is essentially what "Cross over 1 Cu." entails) in 2 bars.

Or, is it possible that "foot it" is simply an adjective modifying "Cross over 1 Cu."? That is, should the cross over be done with a special step?

At this point we have the 1s improper below the proper 2s, and we are supposed to do rights and lefts. That doesn't work. Now you might argue that a 4 bar "Cross over 1 Cu." could imply a "change with partner", or "two hand turn half" but there's simply not time for that in two bars. You could throw out the foot it and insert a "two hand turn half"? That seems unlikely.

Another choice is a progressive rights and lefts. Where the 2s face partner and do four changes, while the 1s wait, face neighbor and do 3 changes of lefts and rights. For this to work we need to begin with the 2s, which is unusual, and so probably isn't what the author intended.

I think that the deviser never tested this dance and that it never worked.

An oddity: the French for "flying stag" is "cerf-volant" which also means "kite".

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