Of Noble Race was Shinkin

Of Noble Race was Shinkin is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1695 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed., London. It was interpreted by Pat Shaw (mod) in 1962 and published in Another Look at Playford. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: D Minor.

Playford writes (for Nonesuch):

The 1. man set to the 2. wo. and fall back and turn S. Then 1. wo. set to the 2. man, and fall back and turn S. the 1. man change places with the 2. wo. then 1. wo. change places with the 2. man, then all four meet and turn S. Then 1. cu. being in the 2. cu. place, lead through and cast off.

Pat has all of B2 (16 counts) taken up by a half figure eight (which usually takes 8 counts). There is no indication of this in Playford. Playford does leave everyone improper, so clearly something of this sort is needed, Playford does have the 1s leading through the 2s and casting back. Perhaps there's a misprint and Pat intended that to follow the half figure eight?

In any case I have put in both the half figure eight and the lead and cast and this fills up the music nicely.

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: set, turn single, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, lead and cast (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=OfNobleRaceWasShinkin

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1962 by Pat Shaw (mod). 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
Creative Commons License 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.