The tune Allemande Swiss, and the dances written to go to it, were extremely popular in late eighteenth century America.  (It is not to be confused with the tune “Swiss Allemand”, and the dances which were written to go to it.)   Approximately 20 dance manuals and hand-written manuscripts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century include both country dances and a cotillion with the name Allemand Swiss.  As spelling was not standardized in the 18th century, we find many varied spellings of the title, like Continue reading →

We found “None so Pretty” in a collection of country dances from Walpole, New Hampshire  entitled A Collection of Contra Dances of Late, Approved, and Fashionable Figures, Walpole: Museum Press, 1799.   Continue reading →

The version of Successful Campaign which we dance was written down by George Bush during the Revolutionary War.  It is reported that George Washington danced a version of this dance in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1781.   Continue reading →

Portsmouth Harbour is a lovely dance and tune that was first published in London in Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1772  by Charles and Samuel Thompson, and was also included in Thompson’s compleat collection of 200 favorite country dances: perform’d at court [,] Bath [,] Tunbridge & all public assemblies with proper figures or directions to each tune: set for the violin [,] German flute & hautboy. Vollm. 3] circa 1775.  The annual Thompson volumes appear to have come out in the fall of the  year previous to the year mentioned (in this case, 1771) and, as American dancers seem to have really enjoyed learning new dances, were shipped over to America within months.

Portsmouth Harbour is the earliest longways set dance we have yet uncovered that includes the allemande figure. Continue reading →

Oak Stick (or The Oak Stick) is found in one publication in London (Campbell, Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1790) and two manuscripts in America – Nancy Shepley’s manuscript of 1794 from Pepperell, Massachusetts and Asa Wilcox’s Book of Figures from 1793.   Continue reading →

The Young Widow is a lovely, unusual, triple-minor longways set dance that we often dance and enjoy in Sudbury.   We find no instructions or listing for this dance in England, but It apparently was a very popular dance early in United States history, where we find a copy of instructions for it published as early as 1788 Continue reading →