Mage on a Cree ~ Pat Shaw

Mage on a Cree ~ Pat Shaw Mage on a Cree ~ Sharp

Mage on a Cree ~ Pat Shaw is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (website) in 1961 and published in Another Look at Playford. It is a Square dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 112 bars. It is in the key: G Minor.

Playford writes

Hands and meet a D. back again, set and turn S. That again Men meet in the midst, turn back to back, come to your places, and turn the Co. We. ·: We. meet, turn back to back, come to your Places and turn you own
Sides all, set and turn S. That again Men go towards the left hand before the Co. We. and behind the next We. meet and turn S. That again to your places Then the We. as much ·: ·:
Arms all, set and turn S. That again Turn all the Co. w. turn all the next we. ·: Turn all the next, turn all your own.

Even Playford didn't seem to know what this title meant. "Mage" might be "magpie" or "Margery", while "Cree" might be "tree"... or might not.

The dance clearly needs a fourth part where the women weave around the men

Pat Shaw composed B music to go with the A tune Playford provided. Pat Shaw's second part is AABBBB, longer than the other two parts which are AABB.

Colin Hume independantly came to the same interpretation as Pat Shaw, and his thoughts and interpretation may be found online.

The tune was published by Playford with the dance, Mage on a Cree. (Pat Shaw later composed a matching B tune), and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.

The animation plays at 116 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

The dance contains the following figures: USA, hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, siding, arming (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=MageOnACree-PShaw

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1961 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
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.