Lady Mary's Courant

My Lady's Courant

Lady Mary's Courant or My Lady's Courant is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain twice.

[This Dnace should be done with the Courant Step if the Company can do it.]

The 1st Cu. cast off. the Man fall between the 2d. Cu. and the Wo. between the 3d Cu. each three take Hands round The Man cast off and fall between the 2d and 3d. We. the Wo. cast up at the same Time and fall between the 2d and 3d Men, then each three take Hands round The first Man lead his Partner the half Figure thro' the 2d Cu. and fall into the 2d Cu. Place, then turn Hands once round and cast up The 1st Man lead the two first We. round the 2d Man, into their own Places again, then 1st Man turn single and cast off

Sharp calls this dance My Lady's Courant but I can find no justification for that name in Playford (or elsewhere). Playford consistently uses Lady Mary's Courant.

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.

A11-41s long cast down as 2s lead up
5-81s split, man up woman down, to circle three with end couples
A21-41s cast to top, cross, and cast down to 2nd place improper
5-8M1+women, W1+men circle three
B11-41s half figure eight up through 2s to end proper
5-81s two hand turn and cast up as 2 lead down
B21-6M2 to center, 1s+W2 circle three around him
7-81s cast down as 2s 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=LadyMarysCourant

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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
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.