Dargason

Reconstruction. There are varying reconstructions of Dargason; they differ in how the steps are matched to the time, and in the progression pattern. Some reconstructions compress the 16 counts per repeat into 8 counts, and others do the pass by extending the turn single. I disagree with the former since Playford's notation indicates one full repeat of the music per siding, set and turn; I disagree with the latter since the pass to the next instruction comes after the marking for the end of the first repeat. For the progression, some have a wind until all are dancing then unwind format; others do the progression described here where you advance to the end, sit out, and rejoin going the other way. I chose the latter because I don't see a strong difference between the description of the progression in this dance and the descriptions used for other dances. The main virtue of the first style of progression is that it maintains opposite gender partners throughout, but this convention is broken explicitly by other Playford dances such as Halfe Hannikin.


I			(This section begins with only the center two dancers active.)
	A1	1-8	Side to left	First man and Wo. sides once
		9-16	Set and Turn single	set and turne S. •
			(Now two couples are active)
	A2	1-8	Passing old partner to left, Side new partner to left	Passe forward each to the next sides,
		9-16	Set and Turn single	set and turne S. ••
			Repeat A2 until dancers return to original places. Dancers advance until they reach the end of the line and have no new partner. They sit out one repeat, then rejoin the set facing the other way on the next repeat. Center couple will stop first.	As much to the next ••• and so forward and back till you come to your places where you began. ¶

II			(Again, this section begins with only the center two dancers active.)	Armes all as you sided, till you come to your owne places.
	A1	1-8	Arm to left
		9-16	Set and Turn single
			(Now two couples are active)
	A2	1-8	Passing old partner to left, Arm new partner to left
		9-16	Set and Turn single
			Repeat A2 until all dancers return to their original places.

III			(The hey in this section follows the progression pattern of the earlier sections.)	The single Hey all handing as you passe till you come to your places.
	A1	1-16	Hey with hands, starting with center couple passing to left
			(Each pass takes two counts, so the 16 counts in one repeat are sufficient for four dancers. Add music as necessary given the size of the set.)