Camberwell ~ Bentley

Camberwell ~ Bentley is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, London. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1980. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: D Minor.

Playford writes:

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

The first Couple Foot it to each other and cast off, then turn Hands and cast up into their own Places This to the first Strain play'd once. The two first Couple Sett to each other and turn single, then the second Couple go the whole Figure thro' the first Couple This to the first Strain play'd twice. The first Man turn the second Woman with his Right-hand and his Partner with his Left, then Right and Left quite round. This to the second Strain play'd once. The second Man turn the first Woman with his Right-hand, and his Partner with his Left, then Back to Back with your Partners, and the first Couple cast off. This to the second Strain play'd twice.

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, turn single, cast, lead, figure eight, rights and lefts, back to back (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=Camberwell

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1980 by Bernard Bentley. 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.