Elephants Stairs
Elephants Stairs is an English Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1727 in Twenty four new Country Dances for the Year 1727, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2017 and published in Elephants Stairs. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
The 1st. cu. cast off below the 2d. Cu. and go the Figure of 8, till they come to their own Places then 2d. Cu. cast up, and go the Figure 'till they come into their own Places, then the two Men take Hands and lead through, and then go about their own Partners into their own Places, then the 1st. cu. take Hands and lead through below the 2d. Cu. and cast up again, then the two We. lead through between the two Men, then the 1st. cu. cast off below 2d. Cu. and lead up through, and cast off again.
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: cast, lead, figure eight (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=ElephantStairs
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2017 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
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.