Mad Moll is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed.. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (website) in 1963 and published in Another Look at Playford. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 16 bars. It is in the key: A/C modal.
The 1. cu. take hands and draw into the 2. cu. place, the 2. cu. at the same time hands to the 1. cu. place; then each cu. back to back with their partners The 2. cu. does the same, which brings the 1. and 2. cu. as they began All four right-hands a-cross half round, then left-hands a-cross back again to the same The the 1. cu. cross over above the 2. cu. to the 2. cu. place, then go the whole Figure of Eight, which brings the 1. cu. to the 2. proper
The tune, Yellow Stockings, was published by J.&W. Neal with the dance. It has several names, Playford calls it Mad Moll. Originally a hornpipe, it is now performed at a slower tempo. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album Simple Pleasures. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 110 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: lead, figure eight, hands across, poussette, cross go below, back to back (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=MadMoll-PShaw
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1963 by Pat Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.