The More the Merrier is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1696 in The second Part of the Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Douglas & Helen Kennedy in 1929 and published in Country Dance Book, New Series. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.
The 1. cu. take hands and turn down between the 2. cu. and then cast up at the same time; the 2. cu do the like. This ends the first Strain played twice.
The 1 cu. cross over below the 2. cu. and go the Figure through, then all four meet and lead up, then hands a-breast, then lead through and cast off.
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 dance contains the following figures: cast, lead, figure eight, 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.
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=TheMoreTheMerrier
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1929 by Douglas & Helen Kennedy. 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
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.