Study Notes Copyright © William Lynch 2007
CORNERS AND CORNER COUPLES
(X = gent O = lady)
1st corner |
X |
O |
2nd corner |
|
couple |
O |
X |
couple |
|
1st corner |
2nd corner |
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X O |
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Home place |
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| First Figure - Swing all the Ladies (Jigs) | 256 bars |
| 1 | Lead around, gent's R arm around lady's waist and lady's L hand on gent's R shoulder, back to place. | 8 bars |
| 2 | Square the set: taking waltz hold, couples slide 1, 2, 123 into the place to the R of their own (2 steps). They make ¼ turn clockwise and slide into the next place (opposite their own), ¼ turn and slide to the third place and ¼ turn to slide home. | 8 bars |
| 3 | 1st top gent:
House within, with his own partner. |
8 bars |
| Swing all the ladies: The gent swings his partner and drops her beside his 1st corner lady (8 bars). He swings his 1st corner lady and drops her beside his opposite lady and repeats the movement until he takes the 4th lady back to his own place. | 32 bars | |
| 4 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 5 | 1st side gent (L of 1st tops) now dances 3. | 40 bars |
| 6 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 7 | 2nd top gent now dances 3. | 40 bars |
| 8 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 9 | 2nd side gent now dances 3. | 40 bars |
| 10 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 11 | Four sevens: all couples dance the same movement used to square the set, dancing hop 1234567 instead of the slide step. | 8 bars |
| Second Figure - Swing Three (Jigs) | 224 bars |
| 1 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 2 | 1st top couple:
House within. |
8 bars |
| Swing three: the dancing couple, keeping waltz hold, raise their joined hands to take in the 1st corner lady and swing three (6 bars), dropping her back to her place on the 6th bar by again raising their joined hands over her head. They swing on 1 full turn (2 bars) to the next lady, swing three, and repeat with each of the other ladies in turn. | 24 bars | |
| 3 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 4 | 1st side couple now dances 2. | 32 bars |
| 5 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 6 | 2nd top couple now dances 2. | 32 bars |
| 7 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 8 | 2nd side couple now dances 2. | 32 bars |
| 9 | Lead around.
Square the set. Four sevens. |
24 bars |
| Third Figure - Under the Finger (Jigs) | 160 bars |
| 1 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 2 | 1st top couple:
House within. |
8 bars |
| Turn the lady: the gent turns his partner 4 turns clockwise under R arm as he dances the step in place (see STEP later). | 8 bars | |
| 3 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 4 | 1st top and 1st side couples:
Dance at home. Turn the lady. |
16 bars |
| 5 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 6 | 1st top, 1st side and 2nd
top couples:
Dance at home. Turn the lady. |
16 bars |
| 7 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 8 | All four couples:
Dance at home. Turn the lady. |
16 bars |
| 9 | Lead around.
Square the set. Four sevens. |
24 bars |
| Fourth Figure - The High Gates (Jigs) | 160 bars |
| 1 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 2 | 1st top couple:
House within. |
8 bars |
| High gates: with L hand held in L, partners dance in and round to face their 1st corner couple and make a 'gate' with their raised L arms (2 steps). The dancing gent takes the lady facing him through the gate, R hand in R hand, and dances back towards the 1stcorner of the set to face both ladies who are now side by side (2 steps). The gent dances forward, turning both ladies underarm, his partner clockwise and his 'visitor' anticlockwise, and turns anti-clockwise to face his partner (2 steps). His partner then dances through the gate formed by the gent and the visitor as he follows her round and the visitor dances back to place (2 steps). | 8 bars | |
| 3 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 4 | 1st side couple now dances 2. | 16 bars |
| 5 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 6 | 2nd top couple now dances 2. | 16 bars |
| 7 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 8 | 2nd side couple now dances 2. | 16 bars |
| 9 | Lead around.
Square the set. Four sevens. |
24 bars |
| Fifth Figure The Stalling (Jigs) | 112 bars |
| 1 | Lead around.
Square the set. |
16 bars |
| 2 | Face the wall:
Top couples dance at home to finish with 1st tops facing out of the set and 2nd tops facing in the same direction but 1 step inside their own place. |
8 bars |
| Side couples dance at home to finish with 1st sides in line behind 1st tops and 2nd sides behind 2nd tops (RULE - dance into the space on the R). | 8 bars | |
| Cast off: gents dance L and ladies R to complete 2 circles and meet up after the 2nd circle to take waist hold with own partners, leading couple first. | 8 bars | |
| 3 | Lead around out of the circle and back to place. | 8 bars |
| 4 | Square the set: | 8 bars |
| 5 | Face the wall:
Side couples dance at home to finish with 1st sides facing out of the set and 2nd sides facing in the same direction but 1 step inside their own place. |
8 bars |
| Top couples dance at home to finish with 2nd tops in line behind 1st sides and 1st tops behind 2nd sides. | 8 bars | |
| Cast off. | 8 bars | |
| 6 | Lead around out of the circle and back to place.
Square the set. Four sevens. |
24 bars |
| Sixth Figure - The Hornpipe | 160 bars |
| 1 | Quarterhouse: Taking waltz hold, couples dance 1 step into the set and 1 step out then turn 2 steps on to the next place on their R. They repeat this 4 step movement into each place and back home. | 16 bars |
| 2 | House around. | 8 bars |
| 3 | Dance in and out and ladies move on: partners drop hands and all face into the set. All dance 1 step into the set and 1 step back to place and repeat this movement twice (6 steps). On the last 2 steps, while the gents dance in and out, the ladies dance around the outside of the set and turn in to face the next gent on their R. | 8 bars |
| 4 | Quarterhouse, with new partners.
House around. Dance in and out and ladies move on. |
32 bars |
| 5 | Quarterhouse, with new partners.
House around. Dance in and out and ladies move on. |
32 bars |
| 6 | Quarterhouse, with new partners.
House around. Dance in and out and ladies move on to their own partners. |
32 bars |
| 7 | Quarter house.
House around. |
24 bars |
| STEP In the Third Figure, the Turn the lady step in place is danced: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| SOURCE Donncha Ó Muínneacháin at his Birmingham workshop, September 1991. Tom Quinn demonstrates a couple of variations on this set on the video "Set Dancing Made Easy". In his version of the First Figure, the dancing gent drops the lady he is swinging back in front of her own partner and turns twice to reach the next lady. The 'discarded' lady stands for 4 bars and then walks into the next place on her L. In the Third Figure, he compresses the High Gates movement by turning both ladies as soon as the visitor has danced through the first gate, so the movement has to be danced quite slowly to use the full 8 bars. In the Hornpipe, he doubles from one place into the next in the Quarterhouse, and the Dance in and out is danced by the ladies only, the gents dancing in place for 6 bars and then dancing in 1 bar to let the lady past, then out 1 bar to meet her. He also has some interesting steps, and the video is worth watching for these alone. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||