Christ-Church Bells in Oxon

Christ-Church Bells in Oxon is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1679 in The Dancing Master, 6th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.

Playford writes:
Honour to the Presence, then to your we. Lead up all forward and back, that again.
First man turns right-hands with the second wo. once round, and left-hands with his own wo. once round. This ends the first Strain of the Tune.
Second man turns left-hands with the first wo. once round, and right-hands with his own wo. once round. This ends the second Strain.
All four take hands and go once round, then each cu. clap right and left-hands, then the 1.cu. cast off into the 2. cu. places, while the 2. cu. leads up. This ends the third Strain.

Note: After Walsh republished many Playford dances, John Young reissued another choreography for this tune and name in 1721.

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.

A1-41st Corners right hand turn
5-81st Couple left hand turn
B1-42nd Corners left hand turn
5-82nd Couple right hand turn
C1-4Circle left
5-5Clap on 1st beat, clap right with partner 2nd beat
6-6Clap on 1st beat, clap left with partner 2nd beat
7-81s cast, 2s lead

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=ChristchurchBells

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.