Search for the following phrase within a dance name

Search for dances devised (or at least published) between the two years

Search for all dances devised or interpreted by

Search for all dances within a certain publication

Search for all dances of a given style

Search for all dances of a given level of difficulty
Warning: the level of difficulty is subjective, you may not agree, worse, most dances have yet to be evaluated.









Search for all dances with a certain starting formation
Search for all dances with the following figures:

Search for the following phrase within a dance's notes

Up a double, Siding, Arming
Country Dances, Ancient and Modern

Table of Contents

A B C D G H I J K L M R S

A

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
All the way to BeckenhamColin Hume 1980KafoozalumDuple Minor

B

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Bonny Breast KnotEnglish Traditional (date unknown)
Maud Karpeles & Cecil Sharp ~1930
no music3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

C

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Castner's ContraRich Gardner ~1983no musicTriple Minor
Chorus Jig (duple)Saltator 1802
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicDuple Minor

D

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
The Dusty Miller - WeeksClement Weeks 1783
Kate van Winkle Keller & Ralph Sweet 1976
no musicTriple Minor

G

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Gigue for GennyDan Herr 1975Bare Necessities3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

H

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Huntsmen's Chorus
Huntsmen's Chorus ~ ImproperElias Howe 1862
David Kaynor
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Huntsmen's Chorus ~ ProperElias Howe 1862
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor

I

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Iantha the LovelyWalsh 1718
Fried de Metz Herman 1995
no musicDuple Minor

J

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Jamie Allen
Jamie Allen ~ ImproperElias Howe 1862
David Kaynor
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Jamie Allen ~ ProperElias Howe 1862
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Jimmy Allen
Jimmy Allen ~ ImproperElias Howe 1862
David Kaynor
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Jimmy Allen ~ ProperElias Howe 1862
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor

K

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Kernan's ContraKen Kernan 1977
Al Olson ~1983
no musicTriple Minor

L

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Labor of LoveKathy Anderson (date unknown)no musicDuple Minor

M

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
MicrocasmicAnn Fallon (date unknown)no music3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

R

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Rory O'More ~ ContraElias Howe 1858
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicDuple Minor

S

Dance TitleTypeDeviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date,
Interpreter
Music
Performers
Formation
Sackett's HarborElias Howe 1858
Ralph Page ~1984
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Speed the CableElias Howe 1858
Ralph Page ~1984
Cracking Chestnuts
no musicTriple Minor
Number
of dances
Number
of versions
Number
with music
13142

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.


Contra Corners

Also known as: Swing Corners (Wilson).

Bars: 8.

Contra Corners, 3 Couple Contra Corners, 2 Couple In this version of the figure you pull-by right with your partner, turn your 1st corner left, pull-by right with partner, turn you second corner left.

In a modern contra dance this can be unexpected because one of your corners will be outside your minor set.

History

Early examples of this figure are not very explicit, and it is not always clear which hand you use to turn whom, thus in modern dancing styles we have two different versions of what is basically the same figure.

In US Contra Dancing you turn your partner right, your 1st corner left, your partner right again, and your second corner left. The first description I can find that explicitly says to do this is in Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing from 1808.

Most other styles have settled on: turn your first corner right, partner left, 2nd corner right, partner left.

By 1918 Burchenal's version of Chorus Jig has squashed the original triple minor into a duple minor, meaning that all corners are always active.

See Also

This website is copyright © 2021-2026 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.