The Geud Man of Ballangigh ~ Sharp

The Geud Man of Ballangigh The Geud Man of Ballangigh ~ Sharp The Guidman of Balangigh

The Geud Man of Ballangigh ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1696 in The second Part of the Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: G major.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The 1. cu lead down between the 2. cu. and cast up into their places, then the 1. man take the 2. man with his right hand and lead through between the two we. and com into their own places.This to the first Strain play'd once
The 2. cu lead up through the 1. cu. and cast off into their own places, and the 1. wo. and 2. wo. lead through between the two men, and cast off into their own places. This to the first Strain play'd twice The 1. man set to the 2. wo. then fall back and turn S. the 1. wo. do the like to the 2. man, then all four hands half round, then set to your Partners and change to your own sides.

In her book, Ease and Elegance, Fried de Metz Herman gives an interpretation of this dance which, as far as I can tell, is exactly the same as Sharp's.

The Playford Ball makes a slight alteration in including a "fall back" after the circle half (in B2).

The tune, called Hunt the Squirrel, was published in a later edition of Playford. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album A Playford Ball. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 115 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 (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.

A11-41s lead down cast around 2s, back to place
5-8Men lead through women, back to place
A21-42s lead up, back to place
5-8Women lead through men, back to place
B11-41st man set to woman 2 (or 1st corners set), turn single
5-81st woman set to man 2 (or 2nd corners set), turn single
B21-2circle half
3-4fall back with neighbor
5-6set forward
7-8all cross set (or two hand turn half)

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=TheGeudManOfBallangigh

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2019 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.