A Trip to Holy-Well

Dam It

A Trip to Holy-Well or Dam It is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1718 and published in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1718, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2006 and published in Emperor of the Moon. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Kynaston writes:

Note, Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The 1st Cu. turn the 2d. Cu across, and thurn Partners The 1st Cu. go the Hey with the 3d Cu. The 1st Cu. set, and the 1st Man cast off the 1st Wo. at the same Time cast up to the Top, then take each Hands with the 2d and 3d. Cu. and go half round The 1st Cu meet in the Middle and turn half round, take Hands with the contrary Cu. and go half round, which brings the 1st Cu. into the 2d Cu. Place

Originally a triple minor.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, hands across (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=ATripToHolyWell

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2006 by Andrew Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.