Miss Sayer's Allemande

Notes

Dancing "Miss Sayer's Allemande" at Fine Companions
folk dance club

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The Tuesday Playford Group (Bedford, England), when I first joined, had a fairly limited selection of recorded music available: the first two 'English Dancing Master' 12" LP records (the tracks from which now form CD1 in the EFDSS "The English Dancing Master" set of CDs) and a small pile of 7" EP records. Fortunately one of our members, John Riley, knew the Kenton Ramblers well enough to pursuade them to let us record a couple of their practice sessions. These took place on 8th June and 8th September 1978 in Sheila Mason's front room. Sheila was the fiddle player with Vi Le Maistre on accordion and Graham Beebee on piano.

I was roped in because I had a reel-to-reel tape deck. A number of cassette copies were made and circulated at the time, but more recently the advent of digital audio processing software and CD-R allowed a CD to be produced. It should be noted that when Graham Beebee was presented with a copy of the CD, his remark was "It's a pity the piano wasn't in tune".

The Kenton Ramblers went on to produce several LPs of this genre of music. These included "Kenton Ramblers play Pat Shaw", and "The Next Dance Is..." volumes 1 and 2.

"Miss Sayer's Allemande" has always been my favourite track from those we recorded in 1978, and the dance has an unusual movement in the A1 music.

Formation

3 couple longways

Music

Here are the Kenton Ramblers:

A score is available at abcnotation.

The dance, along with a score, appears in Volume 1 of the Fallibroome collection of dances. This is currently (2018) available from AADS.

Notation

bars
A1 1‑41st couple cast to bottom of set, "peek" at each other round the 3rd couple, and return to middle places (2nd couple have moved up);
5‑81st couple two-hand turn ¾ and fall into the centre of lines of three, 1st man between 3rd couple holding hands in a line facing up, 1st lady between 2nd couple facing down.
A2 1‑4Lines set right, left, right, and during the final set left the 1st couple each move sideways left into the middle of their own line;
5‑8Lines set right, left, right, left.
B1 1‑8Circle of six to left and back.
B2 1‑4All right hand turn partner;
5‑82nd and 3rd couples left hand turn partner, while 1st couple cast to bottom of set.

Repeat twice more.

Sources