The Duke of Gloucester's March - Bray

The Duke of Gloucester's March - Bray is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Thomas Bray in 1699 and published in Country Dances: Being a Composition Entirely New, London. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Blay writes:

The First Man and second Woman turn to their right Hand and move to the wall two or three steps, and close their feet. 1st. Wo and 2d. Man each follow their own Partner at the same time, and close their feet; then 1st. Wo. and 2d. Man turn both to the left Hand round and meet in the middle of the room with their backs to each other, the 1st Man turns down to the left Hand, and takes his Wo. by both Hands, the 2d. Wo. turns up to the left Hand at the same time, and takes her Man by both Hands the the 1st. Man puts his Wo. back, and the 2d. Wo. puts her Man back, 1st. cu. below, 2d. cu. above, then each Man changing with his own The same thing again First Wo. casts off to the 2d. Man's place, and 2d. Man casts up to the 1st. Wo. place, the other cu. following their Partners, at the same time to each others place, the same thing back again, only the 1st. Man cast up into his own place as at first The 1st. Man and Wo. meet in the middle of the Room, the Man behind the Wo. and close their feet, the 2d. cu. do the same after them, 1st cu. lead up and cast off, 2d. cu. lead up at the same time, and turn single from each other And so to the end.

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.

A11-61st corners, followed by partner, move out a double toward their respective walls, 1st corners cast left and poussette partner into other couple's places
7-8Partner change
A21-62nd corners, followed by partner, move out a double toward closest walls, 2nd corners cast right and poussette partner into other couple's places
7-8Partner change
B11-42nd corners, followed by partners, cast right half way round the set into each other's places
5-81st corners, followed by partners, cast left half way round the set to original places
B21-21s move to center facing up, man behind woman
3-42s move to center facing up, man behind woman
5-81s cast down as 2s move up and turn single out

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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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1968 by . My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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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.