Three Legged Horse
A dance for three that we wrote ourselves to the tune of Horse’s Brawl – hence the name ‘Three Legged Horse’. It currently has three figures.
Yorkshire Pudding
Longsword dancing comes from Yorkshire, so we titled this dance after another popular Yorkshire tradition. The dance has two figures.
Bob’s Your Uncle
Old Rosie
Elgin
Manx White Boys
This is the dance that the Manx White Boys used to perform after their mumming play.
Dance Des Buffons
Bouffons, as it is usually known, is an odd animal. It’s a matachine dance from France in the 16th century, and the only one of its kind to have come down to us in any detail. In 1589, a book called Orchesography was written by man using the pseudonym of Thoinot Arbeau. This gives a complete step by step description of the dance and also provides the music.
Matachine dances are the most likely ancestor of English morris dances with sticks (morris dances without sticks came centuries before the dances with sticks).
Although they use swords, matachine dances don’t have any connection to longsword dancing. Longsword is equally old, but is a linked sword dance.
Lingdale
Lingdale is a village in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
The Lingdale Primrose team was formed in 1926, and continued dancing until at least 1965. This was their dance.
Sword Play
The Sword play can be tacked onto the end of most dances, as long as they end in either a star or triangle (not twisted triangle) lock. Remember you need two people left over for the Doctor and the Corpse.