Goddesses
Goddesses is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1911 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 2). Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. The dance lasts 176 bars.
Lovelace writes:
Leade up twice, and then breake of, and fall downe, to the bottome, all ye rest following, goeing soe as they stand, and then meeting att ye bottom, breake of againe and come to theire places;
All the men shall follow each other, the first man leading of them about the woemen, till they come to the last and then they shall goe backe againe into theire places, and then falle backe like before to the bottome, and then then to theire places agayne, the woemen must doe the same
The men shall begaine againe, and goe round againe halfe way, and there make a little stand, and then goe forwards quite, all following him, and soe come into theire places, and then cast of and come upwards agayne, like as before
The men shall dance the Hay backwards and forewards, the women standing still, till they come to their owne places, and then cast off againe both men and woemen, as before;
All ye men shall take hands, and dance round and backe againe, till they come into their places, and then cast off, as before;
The men take hands backwards, and doe like as before running rounde backwards, and forewards, and casting off, as before;
Note that after every one of the mens parts the woemen doe the same;
Playford writes:
Lead up a D. forward and back That again Cast off, meet below Cast off below, beet above Men go down on the outside of the we. Back again This as before We as much Back again This as before Men go quite round about the we. This as before We. as much This as before We. as much This as before Then all hands and go half round back again This as before Men the S. Hey This as before We. as much This as before Then D. Hey This as before
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
| I.A1 | 1-4 | Up a Double, and back |
| I.A2 | 1-4 | Up a Double, and back (again) |
| II.A1 | 1-4 | M1 head up followed by other men, loop around W1 ending behind W4 |
| II.A2 | 1-4 | M4 turn up followed by other men back to place |
| III.A1 | 1-4 | W1 head up followed by other women, loop around M1 ending behind M4 |
| III.A2 | 1-4 | W4 turn up followed by other women back to place |
| IV.A1 | 1-8 | M1 followed by other men, skip clockwise around the women back to place |
| V.A1 | 1-8 | W1 followed by other women, skip counter-clockwise around the men back to place |
| VI.A1 | 1-4 | Men circle four left |
| VI.A2 | 1-4 | and back right |
| VII.A1 | 1-4 | Women circle four left |
| VII.A2 | 1-4 | and back right |
| VIII.A1 | 1-4 | All eight circle half left |
| VIII.A2 | 1-4 | and back right |
| IX.A1 | 1-8 | Men right shoulder hey for four, M1 face down, M2 up, M3 down, M4 up |
| X.A1 | 1-8 | Women right shoulder hey for four, W1 face down, W2 up, W3 down, W4 up |
| XI.A1 | 1-8 | Circular hey, 1s+4s pass partner, 2s+3s pass neighbor (no hands) |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s cast down followed by others to invert the set |
| B2 | 1-4 | 1s cast up followed by others back home |
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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https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=Goddesses
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.