Irish Trot is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1912 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 3). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 144 bars. It is in the key: D Minor.
Playford writes:
Lead up all a D. and back, set and turn S. Lead down all a D. and back, set and turn S. The 1 man take his wo. with his right hand, then with his left, and so holding hands across change places, fall back from each other, meet again, fall back, then arms with your wo. and stay in your places, the man on the wo. side, and the wo. on the man's ·: Hands in like manner with the 2. wo. changeing places with her on the right hand, while the wo. do the like with the 2. man, holding him in her left hand, both cu. fall back from each other, meet again, fall back, arms with your own, and so forward to the rest, who following does the like.
Take your own wo. in your right hand, and the 2. wo. on your left, meet the 2 man, fall back, each man honour to his own wo. then to each other's wo. take them by the right hands, then your own by the left, the 1. cu. into the 2. place, and the 2. cu. into the 1. pace The rest following ·:
Lead up all a D. and back, cast off all and meet, the 1. cu. below and the last cu. above, take your we. in your left hand, and lead them all to the left round about the same places. Lead down all a D. and back. cast off, and meet in your own places as at the first, take you we. in your right hands, and lead them round about on the right hand to your places
Sharp chose to omit part 3.
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. 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.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
Up a double | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Part 2 repeats 4 times | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Part 3 repeats 4 times | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Part 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 © 2021 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.