Irish Trot

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

A1	1-4	Up a Double, and back
	5-8	Partner set and turn single
A2	1-4	Down a Double, and back
	5-8	Set and turn single

Part 2 repeats 4 times

A1	1-2	1s take right hands then left, two hand (crossed) turn half to change places
	3-4	Fall back, meet, fall back
	5-8	Arm right (ending improper)
	9-12	Arm right
A2	1-2	Neighbor take right hands, then left, two hand turn half
	3-4	Fall back, meet, fall back
	5-8	Partner arm left

Part 3 repeats 4 times

A1	1-4	1s cross so that M1 is between the two women on the 1st corner diagonal, all facing M2, forward to M2, fall back
	5-6	Honour your partner, honour your neighbor
	7-8	Face neighbor, rights and lefts, 1s do two changes, 2s only one

Part 4

A1	1-4	Up a Double, and back
	5-8	1s, followed by others, cast to bottom
A2	1-8	1s, followed by others, take hands, turn left, lead up, turn left, lead down
A3	1-4	Down a Double, and back
	5-8	1s, followed by others, cast to top
A4	1-8	1s, followed by others, take hands, turn right, lead down, turn right, lead up

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=IrishTrot

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.