Les Colisée

Paris Pantheon

Les Colisée or Paris Pantheon is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Matthew Welch in 1767. It is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Welch provides diagrams (not shown here, see Another Look at Playford.) and the following notes:

The 1^st. & 2^d. Cu: change Sides & Rigadoon step.

The 1^st. Cu: cast of, and meet at the bottom, at the same time the 2^d. Cu: turn in their own place.

The 1^st. & 3^d. Cu: change Sides & Rigadoon step.

The 1^st. Cu: cast up, at the same time the 3^d. Cu: turn in their own place.

The 1^st. Cu: join hands and lead between the 2^d. and 3^d. Ladies.

The same between the 2^d. and 3^d. Gentlemen.

The 1^st. Lady hunt round the 3^d. Gentleman and Rigadoon step, at the same time the 1^st. Gentⁿ. hunt round the top Lady & Rigadoon.

The same continued and Ballottèe

According to Pat Shaw, a "Rigadoon" starts with the feet together, swing the right foot out to the side with the toe pointing down, same with the left, end with feet together. I simply show a basic "setting" step.

Pat does not mention when the 2s move up. I presume it is during the Lead out to the sides sequence.

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	1-2	1s+2s women lead inside to men's places as men move outside to women's
	3-4	All Rigadoon
	5-8	1s cast to bottom as 2s two hand turn half and 2s+3s lead up one place
A2	1-2	W1+M3 lead inside across as M1+W3 lead outside across
	3-4	All Rigadoon
	5-8	1s cast to top as 3s two hand turn half and 2s+3s lead down one place
B1	1-8	1s lead down as 2s move up, then 1s lead out to the sides starting between women
B2	1-2	1s pass left, lead out between opposite sex neighbors and loop left finishing between end couples
	3-4	All Rigadoon
	5-8	1s cast left around 1 person meet in center and lead down as 3s cast up

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=LesColisee

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1967 by . My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.