Hunt the Squirrel ~ 1709
Hunt the Squirrel ~ 1709 is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1709 in The Dancing Master, 14th ed.. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (mod) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 64 bars.
Cecil Sharp provides an adaptation for only half the dance. It should have two parts (with no progression after the first) and he only describes the second part. Weeks has an alternate interpretation of A3+4.
Playford writes:
Note: Each Strain must be play'd twice over to each Part of the Dance.
The first Man Heys on the We. side, and the 1. Wo. on the Men's side at the same time Then 1. Man Heys on the Men's side, and Wo. on the We. Side, till they come into their own Places Then 1. cu. cross over and turn Then the 2. cu. do the same
The 1. Man goes the Figure of 8 on the Men's side, his Partner follows him at the same time; then she slips into her own Place The 1. Wo. cast off on the outside of the 3. Wo. and half Figures with the 3. and 2. We. her Partner follows her at the same time; then the Man slips into his own Place The 1. cu. being at the top, the 1. Man changes over with the 2. Wo. and the 1. Wo. with the 2. Man, then all four Hands half round, then the 1. cu. being at the top, cast off The Right and Left quite round, and turn your Partner
The tune, also called Hunt the Squirrel, was published in Playford with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album A Playford Ball. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 113 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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 | 1-8 | 1s start cross-over mirror heys on the opposide side |
| A2 | 1-8 | 1s again cross-over into mirror heys on own side |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s cross, go below as 2s move up |
| 5-8 | 1s two hand turn once and a half (to proper) | |
| B2 | 1-4 | 2s cross, go below as 1s move up |
| 5-8 | 2s two hand turn once and a half | |
| A3 | 1-8 | M1 followed by partner heys through the other men (who stand), starting outside M2, W1 returning to place after looping M3 |
| A4 | 1-8 | W1 followed by partner heys through the other women (who stand), starting outside W2, M1 returning to place after looping W3 |
| B3 | 1-2 | M1/W2 change |
| 3-4 | W1/M2 change | |
| 5-6 | 1s+2s circle four half | |
| 7-8 | 1s cast down, as 2s lead up | |
| B4 | 1-8 | 1s+3s four changes of rights and lefts |
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=HuntTheSquirrel
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. 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 © 2021-2025 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.