Each dance’s link below has instructions, embedded media, and an attached handout.
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These Dances by Arrangement and Number of Dancers
General Resources
- English Country Dance Basics
- Italian Dance Steps (a basic summary)
- Playford’s Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide (collected, cataloged, and indexed by Bruno)
15th Century Italian
16th Century Italian
- Bella Gioiosa
- Contrapasso in Due
- Schiarazula Marazula (SCA Maltese Bransle)
Gresley (~1500)
Arbeau (1589)
- Aridan Bransle
- Cassandra Bransle
- Charlotte Bransle
- Clog Bransle (miming)
- Double Bransle
- Horses Bransle (miming)
- Maltese (Turkish) Bransle (miming)
- Montarde Bransle
- Official Bransle
- Pease Bransle (miming)
- Pinagay Bransle
- Single Bransle
- Torch Bransle
- Bransle of War
- Washerwoman’s Bransle (miming)
Inns of Court (1570-1675)
Playford (1651 – Original)
- Argeers
- Beggar Boy
- Bobbing Joe
- Chestnut (or Dove’s Figary)
- Cuckolds All a Row
- Fine Companion
- Gathering Peascods
- Glory of the West
- Goddesses
- Grimstock
- Heart’s Ease
- Hyde Park
- If All the World Were Paper
- Jenny Pluck Pears
- Lady Cullen
- The Maid Peeped Out at the Window
- Newcastle
- Parson’s Farewell
- Picking of Sticks
- Rufty Tufty
- Scotch Cap
- Stingo (or Oyle of Barley)
- Upon a Summer’s Day
Playford (Later editions) and other
Later English Country Dances
- Black Nag (3rd ed., 1665)
- Epping Forest (4th ed., 1670)
- Female Sailor (Recueil de Contradances, 1706)
- Hole in the Wall (11th ed., 1701)
- Juice of Barley (8th ed., 1690)
- Mad Robin (9th ed., 1695)
- Oranges and Lemons (3rd ed., 1665)
- Sellenger’s Round (3rd ed., 1665)
- Trenchmore (2nd ed., 1652)
Chichester Manuscript* (ca. 1610)
The Apple Seed- Baker’s Dozen
- Bayeux Bransle (Le Branle de Bayeux)
- Bebhinn’s Delight
- Belle of Italy
- Blacksmith’s Bransle
- The Boatswain’s Catch
- By Hook or By Crook
- Cuskynoles
- Dorchester Market
- Escaping the Kidcote
- For Love of Honey
- Fox in the Henhouse
- A Grain of Salt
- Halfway to Bristol
- Honestly
- The Lazy Miller
- London Bridge
- The Lost Slipper
The Mackerel of Brighton- The Merry Fishwife
- Mr. Huntley’s Maggot
- Once a Week
- Perchance She Will
- Potting Ale
- Put a Log on the Fire, Wyllard
- The Scarf
- Spring Is Near
- The Wayward Hound
- Wind in the Pines
Other Modern Invented Dances
- Carolingian Pavane (20th cen., tune by Arbeau)
- Heralds in Love (20th cen., Sigewealding)
- I Care Not For These Ladies (20th cen., tune by Thomas Campion)
- Korobushka (20th cen., Russian folk tune)
- Road to the Isles (SCA adaptation of traditional Scottish)
* “The Chichester Manuscript” is the name I have chosen for my collection of dances that I have written and choreographed to fit in with the characteristics of the early editions of Playford’s Dancing Master. On my Handouts page, I have spreadsheets where I have collected the various musical elements and the various steps used in the first two editions of Playford. I chose Chichester because it is near the southern coast (in case I want to include any bransles that may have trickled in across the Channel) and because I was able to find evidence of an active dance community in the 1600s. My goal is to compile all my dances into a book and present it as a “long lost manuscript” that was recently “found.”