Newport Assembly

Thompson writes:

The 1^st. and 2^d. Cu: foot it and change sides the same back again hands across round the same back again Allemand to the right Allemand to the left

Colin Hume points out that this dance has no progression, and gives 8 bars for stars and allemands which normally take 4. So he says So this is another one I'm throwing open to suggestions.

Could the stars and allemands go around twice rather than once? I don't think I've ever seen that happen.

In his interpretation of "The Merry Meeting" (which contains half stars which are given 4 bars) Colin says: I believe (with no supporting evidence) that if the star is specified as half round, you take inside hand with your neighbour and set to partner before the star. Here we have full stars given 8 bars. Could we precede them with 4 bars of setting? And do the same with the allemandes? That's a lot of setting... but in the 18th century footwork was more important than now so perhaps it would fit the times...

Because the 2s take part in the cross overs and the stars, I assume they will also be active for the allemandes, though it might be just the 1s.

There's no progression. Could the couples allemande around each other as later dances had couples waltzing around each other? That seems highly unlikely.

Could we throw out one of the "set twices" and have the 1s do a wide cast down? The destroys the symmetry of the dance...

I think I shall leave it as a 2 couple dance with no progression. Though that is probably not what the Thompsons intended.

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