St. Patrick's Day ~ Smyth

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The RSCDS attributes this to Allan's Ball-Room Guide, ~1880, but it appeared earlier.

Rutherford published a dance with this name in 1756, but it does not match this figure.

Wilson's A Companion to the Ball Room (London, 1816), page 113 contains a figure that might be related:

Hands across quite round with the 2^d. Cu: set & back again lead down the middle up again turn your partner & lead outsides

Smyth writes:

Four hands across half round and pousette, back to places, the first couple down the middle and turn half round and up again, four hands round at top, then turn to proper sides.

The Lowes write something similar:

Cross hands half round and pousette back to places; the first couple down the middle, and turn half round; up again and hands four at top; then turn to proper sides.

Finally Allan writes:

First and second couples right hand across and half round, back to places with pousette.

First couple down the centre, turning half round and up again.

First and second couples right hands across and round turning into places.

Courtesy of National Library of Scotland, licensed under:

There are descriptions of what "poussette" and "down the middle and up" meant when Smyth was writing in NLS MS 3860. A half poussette (which is what is used here) is progressive and leaves everyone proper. "down the middle and up" is also progressive, and leaves the 1s in 2nd place, surprisingly it was often done with both hands joined, chasséing down.

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 dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.

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.

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1-4	Right hands across half
5-8	Half Poussette back to original places
9-16	1s lead down the middle, two hand turn half to improper sides, and lead back
17-20	Circle left four
21-24	1s right hand turn once and a half to proper