Recommended step: step hop, or 1-2-3-hop. It can be done with low energy as a walk if needed.
| A1 | Right hand star [4] |
| A2 | Left hand star [4] |
| B1 | 1st corners change places [1], 2nd corner change places [1], circle left halfway [2] |
| B2 | 3 changes of rights and lefts [4] |
Original words:
First cu. hands across with the 2d. cu. and go the half round · the same back again. : 1st. man change places quick with the 2d. wo. 1st. wo. the same time, with the 2d. man and all four go round, into their proper placs. · right hand and left, with the 2d. cu. :
For the tune see Colin's website.
This dance isn't really very complex, but it's done to a step hop. It can also be done to a 1-2-3-hop, or a walk with a bit of a groove if the dancer doesn't have the energy at that moment in time – hornpipes don't have to be particularly energetic!
Before you say “but they didn't do step hops in those days”, here's a quote from “A.D.” in 1764 – 36 years later but close enough to be indicative:
The Use of the Feet explained.
The first thing to be observed in those, as well as all other dances, is the proper use of the feet in moving, as it cannot otherwise be called Dancing (though often slighted by many, who are very ready with the figures.) To attain which, you are to take notice, that though there are tunes of different sorts of time, viz. common time, triple time, &c. yet one method of moving will serve for them all, by doing it faster or slower, which a person's ear will naturally lead him to do; the step of itself being so simple and plain, any one may soon perfect themselves in it, as it is nothing more than a step forwards, and a hop or rather a little slip, of the same foot, by an easy spring along the floor: this done to the time, first with the one foot and then with the other, alternately, beginning with the right, is the method of moving through the figures.
This is basically describing a skipping step, but if applied to a slower dance, is also describing a step-hop. It's definitely possible for different people to be dancing with different steps and energy levels at the same time and I'd advocate people doing what they're comfortable with.
The Kennedys' interpretation removed the hands from the circle and the rights and lefts. I'm a bit of a purist so I'd put them back in – see which you prefer.