Take a Dance
Take a Dance is an English Country Dance. It was published by Johnson in about 1752 in Two Hundred Favourite Country Dances Vol. 8. It was interpreted by Rich Jackson & George Fogg in 1990. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
This figure was published by the Neals in 1726 with a different tune under the name O'er Bogie.
Thompson also published a dance with this name, tune and figure, and Rutherford published another figure to the name.
1st. cu: lead thrô 2d. cu: cast up to their places & turn both hands: 2d cu. lead up thrô 1st. cu: l cast off into their own places, turn both hands: 1st. cu: cross over & half figure thrô 2d. cu: into2d. cu: places Right & left twice:
Johnson writes (for Take a Dance, page 87):
First Cu. lead thro' the 2d cu. cast up and turn Partners 2d Cu. lead thro' the 1st Cu. cast off and turn Partner Cross over and half figure Right and Left
The tune was published with the dance by Johnson in 1753 and Thompson in 1758, but the same figure with a different tune was published the the Neals in 1726 under the name O're Boggy. It was performed by the Odd Sundays Garage Band (Judy Linsenberg, Shira Kammen and Patti Cobb). The music is used with permission from the Odd Sundays Garage Band.
The animation plays at 113 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance is 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.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), cast, lead, figure eight, rights and lefts, lead and cast, cross go below (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.
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1990 by Rich Jackson & George Fogg. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022 by George W. Williams V
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.