Interpretations

This is a list of my interpretations of Playford dances. It's very much a work in progress as I type up the notes I've made on the many interpretations I've done so far! Please bear with me and feel free to prod me if there's one you've seen me call that you'd like to know about.

I've endeavoured to mention other interpretations which I've referred to in coming up with these, but I'm afraid I haven't tried to seek out all other interpretations that have come before me. Other people may well have come to the same conclusions before me, and I've deliberately included some where I've not come up with anything novel but they're worth publicising! Feel free to tell me about other versions I should link to or credit.

Some notes for intepreting the interpretations(!):

• Numbers in brackets count bars, which are normally two steps, but are three for three-time hornpipes. Note that the A music is often half the length of the B music!
• 1C, 1M, 1W refer to first couple, first man and first woman respectively.
• Note that longways circular, duple minor and triple minor sets were always danced starting the top, bringing in couples one at a time until everyone was dancing and continuing until all are home. The length of the dance is proportional to the number of couples, so if you have very long sets it'll take a while. When a part of a longways dance is described as e.g. duple minor, this type of progression is intended. These days we (quite reasonably) take hands 4 (or hand 6) from the top to start everyone dancing at the same time, but in a multi-part dance incorporating this, getting everyone to change figures mid-dance is challenging, so I'd advocate using the original progressive form if attempting such dances, and keeping the sets short (probably 4 or 5 couples). Also the dances are often very unevenly weighted towards first couple so it's nice to give everyone an equal go.