A B C F G H K L N P R T V

A

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Anna's Clarinet		Jenna Simpson ~2024		Duple Minor

B

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Bar-a-Bar		John Young 1710 Fried de Metz Herman 1986 Playford Assembly	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Barr a Barr		John Young 1710 Fried de Metz Herman 1986 Playford Assembly	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

C

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Companions		Victor Skowronski 2003	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Crystal Spring		Orly Krasner 2008		Duple Minor

F

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Flowers of Edinburgh - Mayfaire		Traditional (date unknown)	Colin Hume	Duple Minor

G

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Gentleman's Delight		Philippe Callens 1998		Duple Minor

H

Dance Title	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Heartland	Orly Krasner 1999		Duple Minor
Heybreak	Chris Page 2018		Duple Minor
Hobb's Wedding	Henry Playford 1695 Colin Hume 2007	Colin Hume	Duple Minor

K

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
A Kissing Dance in the Country Wake		Henry Playford 1695 Colin Hume 2007	Colin Hume	Duple Minor

L

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Lord Nelson's Waltz		William Campbell ~1799 Regency Dances		Duple Minor

N

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Now is the Month of Maying ~ Orig		Jenny Beer 1997		Duple Minor

P

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Physical Snob		Unknown ~1800 Bernard Bentley 1962 Playford Assembly	Bare Necessities	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

R

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Rosamond's Pond		Thomas Bray 1699 Christine Helwig 1990 Playford Assembly		Duple Minor

T

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Treasure of the Big Woods		Joseph Pimentel 2005	Goldcrest	Duple Minor

V

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Vines Entwined		Dan Blim 2024	Frank Hoppe	Duple Minor

Number of dances	Number of versions	Number with music
15	15	7

Warning: The figures for each dance is generated programmatically by regular expression matching and may be in error. Also, for old dances, they reflect the figures used by the interpreter which may not match those of the deviser.

Poussette

Also known as: Put Back, Draw.

Bars: 8 for a full, 4 for a half.

Half Poussette Poussette is a French term, originally meaning little push, and now meaning a baby stroller or perambulator.

Poussettes have a direction which may be specified in various ways as “clockwise”, or “1st corners push”, or “man 1 push, man 2 pull”. In a poussette you take hands with the person across the set (often your partner). Then one of you walks diagonally forward (1s down the set, 2s up) while the other backs up for 4 counts, then everything reverses and the one walking forward now backs up while the one backing up walks forward (but still moving the same way up or down). This is half a poussette.

In a full poussette you continue with the same circular motion until you end up exactly where you started.

Variants


Cooper's Rotational Poussette	Waltzing Turn Poussette	Waltz Poussette?	(R)SCDS Poussette	(R)SCDS Strathspey Poussette	Chevron Poussette

History

The poussette is an old country dance figure which acquired a French name in about 1770 when Cotillions came over from France. In Playford's day it seems to have been called "put-back" or, "draw" (depending on whether M1 was pulling, or pulling. Note: This is different from the modern "draw poussette", which Colin Hume suggests is a modern misunderstanding).

Playford's The 29th of May (1686) has a nice description of a(n English) poussette:

First cu. take hands, the 2. cu. doing the like at the same time; then the 1. man puts back his wo. and slips down behind the 2. wo. into the 2. cu. place, while the 2. man draws his wo. to him and slips into the 1. cu. place. Do this back again the same way;

While the even earlier Cuckolds all arow (1651) describes a half poussette:

Men put the co. we. back by both hands, fall even on the co. side

The same dance appears in the Lovelace MS which was penned a few years before Playford. It also uses a poussette, though it does not describe it as well:

then each man shall take the woeman, that is right over against him, and the one shall draw her upwards and the other downwards; and presently draw them againe close together in theire places halding hands

The Neals also give a fairly clear description from Dublin in 1726 in the dance A Young Virgin of 15 Years

1^st & 2^d men take both hands w^th their partner's and back to back till in their own places:

The Regency Dance Site has a nice paper by Paul Cooper giving the history of the poussette in English dancing. Most English Country Dances use what Cooper calls a "Rotational Poussette", either going half way round in 4 bars to be progressive, or all the way round in 8 ending back where you started.

Wilson, in his Complete System of English Country Dancing defines a "Half pousette or draw" which is what most people before him called a full poussette, while his "whole poussette" goes round once and a half times.

In William Campbell's 14^th book (~1799) is a dance called Lord Nelson's Waltz. The instructions call for a "Poussette" to fill the last 16 bars (at waltz tempo). Both the Regency Dance site and Alan Winston say this should be a "Waltzing Turn Poussette". As yet I have found no contemporary description of this figure, and rely on Winston's description.

By ~1820 something called a "Waltz Poussette" appeared (this may be the same as the waltzing turn poussette?). As far as I know no one ever bothered to define it, so we aren't sure what it entailed. However on page 9 of Lowe's Selection of Popular Country Dances (Edinburgh, 1853) in the description of Spanish Country Dance:

Then pousette, Waltzing round each other. (16 Bars)

This is the final figure of the dance, and needs to be progressive. It suggests to me that the two couples waltzed around each other several times (they had 16 bars) before ending in each others' places. Cooper's paper says that in dances imported from Spain the words "waltz" and "poussette" were used synonymously.

In the US, in 1802, Saltator wrote:

POUCETTE, is to give both hands to partners, by couples and dance round each other, in the time of right and left.

Asa Wilcox was using poussettes in ~1793:

Colledge Hornpipe

Four hand cross roud back again first & third Couple Draw cross over one Couple - Right & left at top -

As was Saltator in 1802 (see Lasses of Glasgow).

But after that Poussettes died out in the United States, and Howe (who published from 1858-1880 in Boston) did not used them.

Table of Contents

A

B

C

F

G

H

K

L

N

P

R

T

V

Poussette

Variants

History

See Also