My Lady Foster's Delight
My Lady Foster's Delight is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1702 in Twenty Four New Country Dances, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
The 1. cu. cast off into the 2. cu. place, the Men take hands and turn a whole round, the we. the same at the same time; the 2. cu. lead down the middle and cast up to the top, and back to back with your Partners, The 1. man being in the 2. man's place, cast up into the 1. wo. place, the 1. wo. and 2. man do the same, the 1. cu. lead up, the 2. cu. lead down at the same time, then Right and Left side till you come into your own places.
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.
| A1 | 1-4 | 1s long cast down as 2s lead up |
| 5-8 | Neighbor two hand turn | |
| A2 | 1-4 | 2s lead below 1s and cast back to top |
| 5-8 | Partner back to back | |
| B1 | 1-4 | M1,W2 cast right to change places with each other |
| 5-8 | W1,M2 cast left to change places with each other | |
| B2 | 1-4 | 1s lead down and cast up as 2s cast up and lead down |
| 5-8 | Face neighbor, two changes of rights and lefts |
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=MyLadyFostersDelight
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
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.