Table of Contents

A

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Another Nancy's Fancy		Pat Shaw 1976	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Apollo's Hunt		Gary Roodman 2009	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

B

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Barbarini's Tambourine		Walsh 1745 Jacqueline Schwab 1987 Playford Assembly	Colin Hume	Duple Minor
Barham Down Barham Down ~ Black Henry Playford 1701 Daisy Black 2019 Colin Hume Duple Minor Barham Down ~ Cook Henry Playford 1701 Tom Cook 1975 Playford Assembly Colin Hume Duple Minor Barham Down ~ Simons Henry Playford 1701 A. Simons ~1990 Colin Hume Triple Minor
Bel Canto		Susan Kevra 2018	Odd Sundays Garage Band	Duple Minor
Black Heath Black Heath Henry Playford 1701 Fried de Metz Herman 1989 Colin Hume Duple Minor Blackheath ~ Kliban Henry Playford 1701 Kalia Kliban 2011 Colin Hume Duple Minor

C

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Cherries and Chocolates		Miriam Newman 2009	Odd Sundays Garage Band	Triple Minor
Cockle shells ~ (down)		Henry Playford 1701 Charles Bolton (mod) 1985 Playford Assembly	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Cockle shells Cockle shells ~ (Triple) Henry Playford 1701 Bare Necessities Triple Minor Cockle shells ~ (up) Henry Playford 1701 Charles Bolton (mod) 1985 Bare Necessities Duple Minor Cockle shells ~ Bolton Henry Playford 1701 Charles Bolton 1985 Playford Assembly Bare Necessities Duple Minor

E

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Easter Morn		Erna-Lynne Bogue 1994	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Elizabeth		Colin Hume 1991	Masquerade	Duple Minor

F

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Fandango		Thompson 1774 W. S. Porter, M. Heffer, A. Heffer 1931 Playford Ball	Frank Hoppe	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231
The Female Saylor The Female Saylor Feuillet 1706 Pat Shaw 1960 Playford Ball Bare Necessities Duple Minor The Female Saylor ~ Roe Feuillet 1706 Peggy Roe Bare Necessities Duple Minor
Flowers of Edinburgh - Mayfaire		Traditional (date unknown)	Colin Hume	Duple Minor
Fourpence, Ha'penny, Farthing #1		Henry Playford 1688 Cecil Sharp 1922	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Freeford Gardens		Kathryn & David Wright 1980	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

G

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Goose and Gridiron		Thompson 1768 Tom Cook 1975 Playford Assembly	Dave Bartley, Ruthie Dornfeld and Terry Wergeland	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

I

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Impropriety		Brooke Friendly/Chris Sackett 1999	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

J

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Jockey #1		Henry Playford 1688 Cecil Sharp 1922	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

K

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Kelsterne Gardens		John Young 1726 Tom Cook 1975 Playford Ball	Bare Necessities	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

L

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Lambs on Green Hill		Dan Seppeler 2011	Bonnie Insull, Susan McNeil, and Robert Winokur	Duple Minor
The Lang Staff		Pat Shaw 1976	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

M

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
La Matelotte La Matelotte Feuillet 1706 Pat Shaw 1960 Playford Ball Bare Necessities Duple Minor La Matelotte ~ Roe Feuillet 1706 Peggy Roe Bare Necessities Duple Minor
Michedonia		Dan Blim 2014	Odd Sundays Garage Band	Duple Minor
The Morland Waltz The Morland Waltz ~ 3 Couple Colin Hume 2010 Colin Hume 3 Couple Longways permutation: 231 The Morland Waltz ~ 5 Couple Colin Hume 2010 Colin Hume 5 Couple Longways permutation: 24153 The Morland Waltz ~ Duple Colin Hume 2010 Colin Hume Duple Minor
Mount Hills Mount Hills Henry Playford 1701 Bernard Bentley 1965 Bare Necessities Duple Minor Mount Hills ~ Playford Assembly Henry Playford 1701 Bernard Bentley (mod) 1965 Playford Assembly Bare Necessities Duple Minor
Mr. Isaac's Maggot Mr. Isaac's Maggot ~ Hume Henry Playford 1695 Colin Hume 1996 Bare Necessities Duple Minor Mr. Isaac's Maggot ~ Pat Shaw Henry Playford 1695 Pat Shaw 1969 Bare Necessities Duple Minor
Mrs. Hill's Dance ~ A. Shaw		Nathaniel Kynaston 1710 Andrew Shaw ~2015	Odd Sundays Garage Band	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

N

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Night Cap		Marjorie Heffer & William Porter 1932	Bare Necessities	Square

O

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Ore Boggy Ore Boggy John & William Neal 1726 Rich Jackson & George Fogg 1990 Playford Assembly Bare Necessities Duple Minor

S

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Sally in our Alley		Walsh 1719 Jacqueline Schwab 1987 Playford Assembly	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Shindig		Renée Camus 2024	Jon Berger	Duple Minor
Shropshire Lass		Nathaniel Kynaston 1710 Bernard Bentley 1971 Playford Assembly	Colin Hume	3 Couple Longways permutation: 231
Step Stately ~ Hume		John Playford 1651 Colin Hume 1995	Colin Hume	5 Couple Longways

T

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Take a Dance Take a Dance John & William Neal 1726 Rich Jackson & George Fogg 1990 Playford Assembly Bare Necessities Duple Minor
Tambourine Dance		Walsh 1742 Jacqueline Schwab 1987 Playford Assembly	Frank Hoppe, Robert Winokur, and Susan McNeil	Duple Minor

Number of dances	Number of versions	Number with music
31	42	41

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.

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Figure Eight

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

In the example the 1s cross down between the 2s, loop around them and come back up, then cross down between the 2s again, and loop around them again, returning to original places.

There is also a half figure of eight, where the active couple crosses between the inactive couple, loops around them and finishes in their partner's place.

Variants

Henry Playford also published dances where the men figure eight through the women (and vice versa): in Juice of Barley, 1689, he describes the movements of a figure of eight across (but does not name it), while in Easter Eve, 1701 he does use the name.

Nathaniel Kynaston published several dances with figure of eights on the side lines (as opposed to through another couple), see Love and a Bottle, 1710 where M1 figures through the men, and W1 through the women. The Canary's, a dance published by John Young in 1726 also has each sex doing a figure eight on its own side.

Kynaston also published dances where the first corners figure eight though the second corners (or vice versa). See Jockey's Jigg, 1711. Cook's Humour, published by Young in 1718 (so perhaps devised by Kynaston also) has the corners doing half figures of eight.

History

Playford uses a figure of eight in his dance What You Please, from 1651:

1. man go in the Figure of 8 about the 2. man and 1. wo. go int the Figure of 8 about the 2. wo.

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As far as I can tell, the figure died out in the US in the nineteenth century — except for the dance Figure of Eight but even this dance does not use the term, it has to spell out the movements of the figure because no one was expected to know it.

As with many other figures, this started reappearing in the 1970s when Contra reimported many English figures which it had lost over the years.

See Also

• Double Figure Eight

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