Lady Day ~ Kennedy

Lady Day ~ A. Shaw Lady Day ~ Hume Lady Day ~ Kennedy Lady Day ~ Bolton

Lady Day ~ Kennedy is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The Dancing Master, 10th ed., London. It was interpreted by Douglas & Helen Kennedy in 1929 and published in Country Dance Book, New Series. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:
First man take hands with the 1. and 2. wo. half round; wo. break hands, and cast off; turn the 1. wo. into the 2. wo. place, 1. man at the same time turn the 2. man into his place; then the 2. man take hands with the two women, and do as before; first cu. being in their own places, slip down, the we. within side, and them without side into the 2. cu place, the slip up at the same time; turn single all four, right and left into their own places, then slip down as before, the man within-side, and the wo. without-side, turn single, and men turn by themselves, and wo. doing the like at the same time.

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

In bars 3-4 of A1 (and A2) if W1 casts right, as the Kennedies say, she will end in M1's place (not her own), and if W2 casts right she will end in W1's not M1's. So I have changed it to a cast left.

In the final two hand turn, Playford does say to turn with neighbor, but it is awkward. I agree with Colin Hume that a partner turn makes more sense.

The tune was published with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.

The animation plays at 113 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 dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), turn single, turn single cloverleaf, circle, cast, rights and lefts (and probably others).

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=LadyDay-Kennedy

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1929 by Douglas & Helen Kennedy. 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
Creative Commons License 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.