THE BLACK VALLEY/ KENMARE SQUARE JIG
Study Notes Copyright © William Lynch 2007
| First Figure - The Star (Jigs) | 120 bars |
| 1 | Lead around: taking waist hold, couples face anticlockwise around the set and dance around to place. | 8 bars |
| 2 | Slow square: changing to waltz hold, couples slide 1, 2, 1, 2, into the place on their R and there dance 2x3s, while turning ¼ turn clockwise towards the next place (4 bars). They slide into that place, dance 2x3s in place while ¼ turning towards the next place and so on back to their own place (12 bars). | 16 bars |
| 3 | House around. | 8 bars |
| 4 | Star: Top couples face the couples on their L, take R hands across in handshake hold, the ladies' hands held above the gents', and wheel around to place. | 8 bars |
| 5 | Swing, with waltz hold. | 8 bars |
| 6 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| 7 | Star, top couples facing the couples on their R. | 8 bars |
| 8 | Swing. | 8 bars |
| 9 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| Second Figure Swing Opposites (Jigs) | 152 bars |
| 1 | Lead around. Slow square. House. |
32 bars |
| 2 | Top couples slide and home: they slide towards the centre and back (4 bars) and dance at home (4 bars). | 8 bars |
| Gents cross and swing the opposite lady. | 8 bars | |
| Slide and home, new couples. | 8 bars | |
| Gents cross back and swing partners. | 8 bars | |
| 3 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| 4 | Side couples now dance 2. | 32 bars |
| 5 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| Third Figure -Swing Three Girls (Jigs) | 200 bars |
| 1 | Lead around. Slow square. House. |
32 bars |
| 2 | Top couples: Dance at home. |
8 bars |
| Slide and home. | 8 bars | |
| Gents cross and swing opposites. | 8 bars | |
| Slide and home, new couples. | 8 bars | |
| Gents swing the lady on the L. | 8 bars | |
| Slide and home, new couples. | 8 bars | |
| Gents go home and swing partners. | 8 bars | |
| 3 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| 4 | Side couples now dance 2. | 56 bars |
| 5 | Slow square. House. |
24 bars |
| Fourth Figure -The Slide (Jigs/Slides) | 104 bars |
| 1 | Top couples lead around: gents take L hands in the centre and waist hold with their partners and both couples wheel around to place. | 8 bars |
| House around. | 8 bars | |
| Square the house, 3 times: couples slide 1 2 123 to a point in front of the couple on their R, make a ¼ turn clockwise and slide 1 2 123 to a point in front of their opposite couple's position (4 bars) then house back to place (4 bars). They repeat this movement twice. | 24 bars | |
| House around. | 8 bars | |
| 2 | Side couples now dance 1. | 48 bars |
| Fifth Figure - The Floating Reel (Reels) | 176 bars |
| 1 | Lead around, with crossed hand hold in front, back to place, drop hands and remain facing anti-clockwise, gents on the inside of the ladies. | 8 bars |
| 2 | Sidestep: partners dance across each other, the gent moving out behind the lady as she moves towards the centre, and dance 2 steps in place (4 bars) then sidestep back, again with the gent behind the lady and dance in place (4 bars). | 8 bars |
| 3 | Swing partners. | 8 bars |
| 4 | Top couples: Dance at home. |
8 bars |
| Advance, retire and dance at home. | 8 bars | |
| House around each other. | 8 bars | |
| Gents cross over to the opposite lady, R to R, and swing. | 8 bars | |
| Gents dance in and link L elbows in the centre (2 steps), dance 4x3s anti-clockwise and 2 doubled steps out to finish beside their own partners. | 8 bars | |
| 5 | Lead around. Sidestep. House around. |
24 bars |
| 6 | Side couples now dance 4. | 40 bars |
| 7 | Lead around. Sidestep. House around. |
24 bars |
| 8 | Four sevens: all couples dance 7s into the next place on their R, ¼ turn and dance 7s into the place opposite their own (4 bars) and repeat these movements back to place (4 bars). | 8 bars |
| 9 | House around. | 8 bars |
| STEPS The set is danced very flat with absolutely no ornamentation of the ‘down’ jig and basic reel steps. The step for the Slow Square has several variations and seems to be danced according to individual taste. Variations on the step described above are: 1, 2, 123, step&cut, step&cut; and 1, 2, step&cut, step&cut, step&cut. |
| SOURCE Timmy McCarthy, at Priddy, Somerset, May 1995. Timmy told us that the set had been danced for generations in the locality until a dancing teacher ‘from somewhere’ came along and told the local people ‘they were doing it all wrong’. From that day it was seldom danced and in the early days of the set dance revival, when Timmy was making enquiries about local sets, it was never danced at all. He met a girl called Maureen Finnegan in Kenmare who told him that her father had a set and would be happy to pass it on. One Sunday afternoon her father got together a group of the older people who had danced this set in times past and they danced it for Timmy. On the following Wednesday one of the men who had danced in the group died. His contribution to the set’s revival must have been considerable, for Timmy remarked that, had it not been for that Sunday afternoon session, we wouldn’t have the set now. Timmy gave us, on that day, a version of the Floating Reel with the dancing couples dancing 'Four Sevens' and 'House' before the gents cross and swing, as in the Auban Ginnie Ling. He did say, however, that it was some time since he had danced the set and that there was “every possibility” that he might inadvertently introduce some changes. Reference to his earlier version recorded in Pat Murphy's "Toss the Feathers" and to Val Knight, who has the set from several sources, has led me to accept the Reel as recorded above as more in keeping with the rest of the set and as how he would have presented it on the day had it come to mind. |