Heart's Ease

Heart's Ease or Heartsease is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. 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 Facing Couples dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 72 bars. It is in the key: G minor.

Playford writes:

Meet all a D. fall back a D. That again Men fall back from your we. meet again and turn co. conce round with their right hand All fall back from the co. they turn, meet again and turn your own with the left hand.

Sides all with your own, then with the co. That again As before

Arms all with your own That again with the co and fall back from your own first, as before ·: As before

Lovelace writes:

Both couple leade towards each other, and backe againe twice, then all fall backewards, and forward, and then each man turne round his woeman and then fall back againe like before, and then you shall turne round the woeman that stands over against you;

After siding twice, and falling backe twice, then turne round all singly, and the woeman you turned last before, you shall turn her first this time, and then falle backe all, and each turne his owne woeman;

Armes all, 2 and then, and then doe the very same, you did before

The tune was published with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album Strong Roots. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 103 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

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=Heartsease

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 © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

I.A	1-4	Forward a Double, back
	5-8	Forward a Double, back (repeat)
II.A	1-4	Partner right siding
	5-8	Opposite left siding
III.A	1-4	Partner right arming
	5-8	Opposite left arming
B1	1-4	Partners face, fall back a double with opposite and come forward
	5-8	Opposites face, opposite right hand turn
B2	1-4	Opposites face, fall back a double with partner and come forward
	5-8	Partners face, partner left hand turn

Meet all a D. fall back a D. That again	Men fall back from your we. meet again and turn co. conce round with their right hand All fall back from the co. they turn, meet again and turn your own with the left hand.

Sides all with your own, then with the co. That again	As before

Arms all with your own That again with the co and fall back from your own first, as before ·:	As before

Heart's Ease

Heartsease

Harts Ease