Spanish Gypsie ~ Longways

The Spanish Jeepsie

Spanish Gypsie ~ Square Spanish Gypsie ~ Longways

Spanish Gypsie ~ Longways or The Spanish Jeepsie is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1971 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 4. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 144 bars.

Lovelace simply calls this The Gipsyes and describes it as:

Leade up, downe agayne, then they all turne theire backes, both men, and woemen, towards one another, and then turne themselves as they were before, all their faces together, then every man goeth round his woman, then backe agayne, not turning of her, but only goeing round her, this being done, the first man, and the last woeman, (all the rest standing still) doe turne theire right sides together, and then their left sides, and then they sett their backes together, and then theire faces, and then the man goesh round like her at first, and then go backe agayne, and soe each in his place then the last man, and the first woeman doe the same;

You shall allmost do the very same only after sides and backes going round like as before, then the first woman, and then the last man shall begine, and doe the same, as that the last woman, and the first man did before, and then the first man, and the last woeman shall doe it after them, like as before described;

Doe the same, as you did att first, over agayne, and then leade of, and let others proceede if they please;

Playford writes:

Longways for Eight
Lead up forward and back That again Turn all back to back, faces again, go all about your we. not turning your faces, that again the other way First and last cu. meet a D. back again, turn all back to back, faces again, go about each other not turning your faces, the other way as much The other four as much ·:
Sides all That again Turn back to back, faces again, go about your own as before First and last cu. meet and go back, turn back to back, faces again, take hands and go round, back again The other four as much ·:
Arms all That again Turn back to back, faces again, go about your own as before First and last cu. meet, back again, turn back to back, faces again, right hands across and go round, then left round The other four as much ·:

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

The dance contains the following figures: USA, turn single, gypsy, circle, hands across, siding, arming, back to back (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=SpanishGypsie

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1971 by Bernard Bentley. 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.