Powell's Fancy

Hoffed Ap Hywel

Powell's Fancy or Hoffed Ap Hywel is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Charles and Samuel Thompson in 1765 and published in Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1765, London. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw? in about 1971 and published in Four Social Dances - Welsh Folk Dance Society. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Thompson writes:
Turn right hands and cast off one Cu: turn with your left hands the Man casts off and the Wo: cast up foot it three at top and bottom foot it three Contrary sides foot it corners and turn ·: lead out sides and turn

(Originally a triple minor).

Colin Hume is not certain of who did the initial interpretation of this dance, but thinks it might have been Pat Shaw. At any rate someone introduced it to the Welsh Folk Dance Society who published it in a leaflet "Four Social Dances" in 1971. (From Colin Hume's website).

Colin says "foot it" had no specific meaning but is an invitation to show off, but Charles Learthart in Kentish Hops says it means "although not written down it is thought to have consisted of jumping and kicking out one's right leg either sideways of to the front, another jump and kicking with the left leg." Colin suggests using Tom Cook's "step-setting": "step right, left across i front of the right, transfer weight back to the right foot, then repeat with the left".

The tune was published with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.

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 (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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, lead, lead out through the sides, siding (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=PowellsFancy

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~1971 by Pat Shaw?. 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
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.