Miss Nancy Frowns ~ RSCDS
Miss Nancy Frowns ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It was published by Johnson in about 1752 in Two Hundred Favourite Country Dances, Vol. 8, London. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1947 and published in RSCDS Book 14. It is J8×32 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. J32.
May be found in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library online collection: Johnson Vol. 8.
Johnson writes:
First and 2d. Cu. foot Partners then foot sideways Cross over 2 Cu. Lead up to the Top and cast off the Man whole figure at Bottom and Wo. the same at top at the same time Hands across at Bottom Right and Left at Top
The original music consists of a 4 bar A strain and an 8 bar B strain. The A music appears to be repeated 4 times, the B twice.
Johnson's book is undated, Robert Keller provides 1752 as a date. The RSCDS attributes this dance to Thompson, 1755, but Johnson probably published the figure (the same words even) earlier.
The RSCDS has changed Cross over 2 Cu. Lead up to the Top and cast off (which means, 1s cross by right, go below 2s, cross by left, go below 3s, then lead up and cast down) into a weaving pattern through the other couples which catches the spirit of the movement if not the exact nature of it.
They also changed the figure of eights into reels, which basically follow the same tracks for the 1s but give the others something to do.
Finally they have changed Right and Left at Top to a "left hands across". The right and left would have needed to fit into four bars, instead of the normal 8, and 70% of the time Johnson follows a right hands across with a left hands back, so RSCDS may be right to consider this a misprint.
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.
The dance contains the following figures: set, cast, lead, hands across, hey, cross go below (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=MissNancyFrowns-RSCDS
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1947 by RSCDS. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.