Bickerstaff's Prophesie is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1711 and published in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1711. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2002 and published in The She Favourite. 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 48 bars.
Kynaston writes:
Note: Each Strain twice.
The 1st. man take the 2d. wo. by both hands, pulls her into the 1st. wo. place and turn her quite round The 1st. wo. and 2d. man lead through the 3d. cu. and cast up then the 1st. wo. cast up to the top the2d. man turns his partner etc. same time quite round. the 1st. cu. go the whole figure sides with the 2d. and 3d. cu. clap hands partners cast off & turn the 2d. cu. go the whole figure through the 1st. cu. clap hands and cast off then the 1st. cu. cast off
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), turn single, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, poussette (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.
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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2002 by Andrew Shaw. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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
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.