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====== The Young Widow ======
Triple minor  (or 3 Co long set) Griffiths 1788\\
Recording: {{ ::music:young_widow-063_bn6atb-11.mp3.zip |}}\\
{{ ::music:young_widow-dndabl11.mp3.zip |}}\\
{{ ::music:young_widow-053_yvb-03.mp3.zip |}}\\
Video: http://dancevideos.childgrove.org/ecd/playford/102-the-young-widow

This dance is considered an English Country Dance, but was published in **A Collection of The newest and most fashionable Country Dances and Cotillions**. The greater Part by Mr. John Griffith, Dancing-Master in Providence. More history at http://www.dancehistoryalive.com/blog/2015/06/the-young-widow/

<code>
  A1    1st & 2nd Co's Rh across & Lh back as (often omitted) 
        3rd Co turn Rh then Lh;
  A2    1st Co lead down, wheel round as a Co (Man
        backwards), lead up & cast to middle place (improper):
  B1&2  In side lines of 3 set twice 
        (David Smuckler suggests lead forward & back in lines)
        then hands 6 L half way round:
  C1    C1 step back slightly  
        as C3 & C2 face up and down on sides & set twice,
  C2    C3 & C2 2 changes R&L with hands, neighbours
        facing to start, 
        C1 step back in on second part of R&L. (In 3C set, they
        cast to bottom.)
</code>

Animation: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToxT90cA-lo| Young Widow]]\\
Video: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZmllRv2P9g | Young Widow]]\\
Source: http://www.cdss.org/CDSS, \\
Dance and Danceability, Sticker Number: OECDC 2016 - 12\\
[[young_widow| Old instructions file]] (Triple minor version)

YOUNG WIDOW. American, Country Dance  The tune dates to c. 1788 and it, as well as dance instructions, appear in numerous American musicians' and dancers' manuscript collections from the last decade of the 18th century, as well as period publications. It has not been traced to British antecedents and appears to be an American invention. Morrisson (1976) remarks: "The unusual method of progression is its most distinctive feature."

John Griffith's A Collection of the Newest and Most Fashionable Country Dances and Cotillions (1788). Griffiths was a dancing master who had served for a time as principle assistant to Alexandre-Marie Quesnay at the New York brand of the Academy of Polite Arts. He struck out on his own and toured Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, working as a dancing teacher. He graced Boston for six years with his skill and then returned to New York. Griffiths later opened a dancing academy in Charleston, South Carolina.
playford

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