Playford's Progeny

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====== THADY YOU GANDER ======

English Folk Dance LS E-15 
Contra or longways sets of four couples\\
Meas. (2 counts per meas.; i.e., 1-8 = 16 counts) \\
Recording: {{ ::music:thady_you_gander--005.mp3.zip |}}

<code>
    1- 8 C1 lead down. Cross at bottom and come up opposite side to other's place.
    9-16 W1 leads men round women's line
   17-24 M1 lead women around men's line
   25-40 C1 strip willow to bottom, starting with partner
   Repeat for each of the three remaining couples.
</code>
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oubN3G71YNc

Simple but popular country dance with its origin possibly in Ireland. The tune is Irish and known from at least the 1820s.\\
It seems to have been a popular folk dance collected from areas of Scotland in the early 20th C.
The ‘gander’ reference is derogatory, intimating Thady is of ‘loose character’, a flirt, and this is represented in the dance when the top lady beckons the men to follow her in a merry dance. The dance also includes a simple strip the willow finale. \\
(It was erroneously associated with ‘The Irish Trot’ of the turn of the 17th/18th century and recorded as danced at a wedding at the ‘Rocks’ in Sydney in 1803, but it is now known the Irish Trot is a totally different dance of triple minor progression as distinct from the simple more modern country dance progression of Thady.)