Annotation:Joan Sanderson

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JOAN SANDERSON. AKA and see "Cushion Dance (1) (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (3/4 & 6/4 time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCC. The air appears in John Playford's Dancing Master of 1686 [1]. 'Joan Sanderson' (or John Sanderson, if the participant is male) is a figure in the dance-game of "The Cushion Dance" (see notes on that tune and the Scottish version called "Babbity Bowster"). The Cushion dance is described by Mrs. Groves: "The dance is begun by a single person, man or woman, who, taking a cushion in hand, dances about the room, and at the, end of a short time stops and sings: 'This dance it will no farther go,' to which the musician answers: 'I pray you, good sir, why say so?' 'Because Joan Sanderson will not come to.' 'She must come to whether she will or no,' returns the musician, and then the dancer lays the cushion before a woman; she kneels and he kisses her, singing 'Welcome, Joan Sanderson.' Then she rises, takes up the cushion, and both dance and sing' Prinkum prankum is a fine dance, and shall we go dance it over again?' Afterwards the woman takes the cushion and does as the man did."

The dance survived for several hundred years in some areas. Writing of Cornish entertainments, Davies Gilbert reported in 1823 "...at length to French-More (i.e. "Trenchmore") and the Cushion Dance, and then all the company dance; lord and groom, lady and kitchen-maid, no distinction!"

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 247, p. 64. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), vol. 1, 1859; p. 287.

Recorded sources:

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