The English Country Dances of the 18th century unfold their full splendor in the expansive sets of the longways. To facilitate your orientation upon the parquet, we have structured the essential figures according to the number of interacting dancers.

This compendium provides targeted assistance for orientation within the longway. It is not conceived as an exhaustive catalog of all possible combinations and variations. Instead, the figures are consistently reduced to their functional basic forms and strictly structured according to the number of interacting dancers. This analytical reduction is intended to sharpen the fundamental understanding of the mechanics and structure of English Country Dance choreographies.

Basic movements such as Cast or Lead may be directed into all spatial directions and applied in the most diverse configurations. The complex sequences – such as "Lead down - Cast up - Lead up - Cast down", "Lead down - Lead up - Cast down" or "Lead up in a line by four" – are invariably based upon these modular foundational elements. In this form, they represent characteristic stylistic elements of specific historical epochs. The exact directional vectors and scaling possibilities of the respective figures are detailed within the individual descriptions.

Pray, let yourself be inspired by our directory. A simple click upon the respective categories shall guide you to our overview pages, whence detailed descriptions and historical treatises await you within our protected archives.