Softly Robin ~ Kennedy

Softly Robin ~ Andrew Shaw Softly Robin ~ Williams Softly Robin ~ Kennedy

Softly Robin ~ Kennedy is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1726 in The Dancing Master, The Third Volume, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by Douglas & Helen Kennedy in 1929 and published in Country Dance Book, New Series. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain twice.

The first Man turn his Partner half round, then making a little stop turn her into her own place The two Men and the two Women turn one another half round, making a little stop, and turn into your own places The first and 2d Man double Figure on the Womens side, and turn one another 'till in your own places; then the first Man cast off Then the Women double Figure on the Men's side, and turn 'till in your own places; then first Woman cast down.

The Kennedies have interpretted Men double Figure on the Women's side as having the men lead through the women and cast back. Now "Figure" in every other case I've seen means a "figure of eight" (sometimes half sometimes full), and I would assume in this context it means that both men half figure eight through the women. This means the turn is only half which is more appropriate for the 2 bars that are allotted to it.

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.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), cast, lead (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=SoftlyRobin

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1929 by Douglas & Helen Kennedy. 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.