Spanish Gypsie ~ Square

Spanish Gypsie ~ Square Spanish Gypsie ~ Longways

Spanish Gypsie ~ Square is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1971 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 4. It is a Square dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 144 bars. It is in the key: D Major.

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 ·:

Bentley points out that this dance works well as a square, with "first and last" replaced by "heads".

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-Square

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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.