Peacock's description of the Minor Kemkóssy:
This is an easy familiar step, much used by the English in their Country dances. You have only to place the right foot behind the left, sink and hop upon it, then do the same with the left foot behind the right.
Peacock leaves unclear what is to be done with the free foot during the hop. Conceivably, it could be pointed out to second position as in the Single and Double Kemkóssy, but since Peacock does not specify that, I lean towards the hop being essentially a sissone dessus, with the free foot pointed downward in a raised third or fifth position in front. Moving the free foot to second (and back) is also rather tricky at the speed at which a series of Minor Kemkóssy steps are performed.
One hazard with this step is the tendency to drift backwards when doing a series of them, which is inappropriate in a setting step and potentially dangerous for, say, the two center dancers in a reel of four. To avoid this, simply hop slightly forward each time so that overall the step does not travel.
As with the Single and Double Kemkóssy steps, a 180º turn (useful for the center dancer in a reel of three) may be made at the end of a Minor Kemkóssy by simply swinging the free foot back and around on the hop and letting the momentum carry one around. If the right foot is free, the turn will be clockwise; if the left foot is free, counter-clockwise.
Peacock offers one suggested combination using two Minor Kemkóssy to substitute for one Single Kemkóssy in a sequence I previously described in my post on the Seby-trast:
2 Seby-trast (two measures)
2 Minor Kemkóssy (one measure)
1 Single Kemkóssy (one measure)
All of this is presumably then repeated to the other side to fill out a full eight measures of setting. Peacock also notes that the order of the steps may be transposed "so that the last shall take the place of the first". Peacock encourages dancers to come up with other combinations as well.
Of note in Peacock's description of the step is his statement that the Minor Kemkóssy is "much used by the English in their Country dances". In Country Dancing Made Plain and Easy by "A. D., Dancing Master" (London, 1764), the setting or footing step for country dances is described almost the same way: "moving the foot behind close to the other...and hopping as before, being careful to move yourself as little backwards with it as possible." A. D.'s step appears to be done at half the speed of Peacock's, however, since he describes it as one per bar of music, though I am a bit skeptical, since that would be very slow going unless the music is played at lightning speed.
There is a substantial gap between A. D.'s manual and the early nineteenth century, but in Regency dancing master Thomas Wilson's The Complete System of English Country Dancing (London, c1815), he specifies for several figures (including foot corners, set and change sides, foot in the centre, etc.) the use of a "back, or Scotch setting step" which he does not describe in detail. The timing of Wilson's step is unclear; at one point he requires "two back, or one Scotch step" and at other points "one Scotch or back step" to fill two measures of music. Despite this confusion, it seems likely to me that Wilson is referring to the same step as A. D., and that its Scottish incarnation as the Minor Kemkóssy would account for his referring to it as "Scotch".
The Minor Kemkóssy reappears in lists of Scotch reel steps in a few English dance manuals from later in the century, including The Ball Room Annual (London, c1844) and Rudolph Radestock's The Royal Ball-Room Guide (London, c1877), with a very similar description obviously derived from Peacock's.
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