Nonesuch ~ Williams or À la Mode de France ~ Williams is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2022. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 224 bars. It is in the key: D Major.
Playford writes (for Nonesuch):
Lead up forwards and back That again, set and turn single, that again First Cu. slip just between the 2. Cu. turn your faces to them, put them back by both hands, and halfe turn them, put them back, and set them as they were, turn your own in the 1. place Do thus to the last.
Sides all that again, set and turn S. that again First man slip before, and stand with his face downwards, the Wo. slip before him and stand faces to your own, the 2. Cu. as much, the third Cu. as much, the last Cu. as much
Arms all as you stand, that again, slip all to the left hand, and back to your places, then as much to the right hand First man slip to the left hand and stand, the wo. as much to her left hand, the 2. Cu. as much third as much, fourth as much Then the single Hey all handing down, and come up on your own side.
Playford writes (for À la Mode de France):
Lead up all a D. and back, this again Set and turn S. This again
First Cu. meet, take both hands and fall in between the 2. cu. each of you turn your faces toward them and put them back, you meet the two men and we all four back and turn your we. So to All.
Sides all to the right and left and turn S. This again Then fall all into one File, each wo. behind her own man thus,. Then arms all with your own by the right and left and remain in the same Figure, then men fall off to the right hand and we. to the left, fall back into the same Figure, then men to the left and we. to the right, and back again into the same Figure, then the 1. man fall into his 1. place, and his wo. the like, so the rest one after another; then the 1. man take his wo. by the hand, his left hand to the 2. wo. the right to the 3. wo. and so forward, his wo doing the like on the other side until you all meet again in your places.
I am perplexed that everyone seems to follow Sharp's rather odd interpretation of the siding. Playford clearly says: Sides all that again, set and turn S. that again, a fairly conventional siding on both sides followed by two set and turn singles, in parallel to the "up a double" section earlier. Yet Sharp has everyone crossing the set and doing a turn single, the crossing back with another turn single. I'm going to take Playford at his word here.
In A la mode de France Playford lumps the set-up for the arming, the arming, and all the stuff that comes after the arming into one figure. Again I will take him at his word, as it makes the music come out right.
I have also let the progressive figure run until everyone is back where they started.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance is 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 dances of George Williams (including this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
Up a double | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Figure 1 repeats 9 times | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Siding | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Figure 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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.
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 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 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.