Parson upon Dorothy ~ Sharp

The Shepherd's Daughter

Parson upon Dorothy ~ Sharp Parson upon Dorothy

Parson upon Dorothy ~ Sharp or The Shepherd's Daughter is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1652 in The Dancing Master, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 72 bars.

There are three different dances in Playford's various editions named Parson upon Dorothy, and this particular dance was also called The Shepherd's Daughter.

Playford writes:
Lead up forwards and back That again First two men and last two men hands, and lead to each wall, we. doing the same, change hands and meet all First and 3. men lead up, the other leading down, change hands and lead the Co. way Turn each others We. Turn your own

Sides all That again As before As before

Arms all That again As before As before

It is not clear to me just how one is supposed to "turn each other's wo.", you can't have both 1st and 2nd corners turning at the same time, so someone must cross over, or something like that. Sharp is no help on this. Bolton suggests having 1st corners turn and M2 run around outside them till he can turn W1. I'd like something a bit more symmetrical than that.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.

I.A1-4Up a double, and back
5-8Up a double, and back (again)
II.A1-4Side right
5-8Side left
III.A1-4Arm right
5-8Arm left
B1-41s+2s, 3s+4s take hands with neighbor, 1s+2s lead out to men's wall, 3s+4s to women's, turn, lead back
5-81s+2s lead up a double, turn, lead back as 3s+4s lead down a double, turn, lead back
C1-4In each set of fours: men cross to two hand turn neighbor women
5-8Men cross back to two hand turn partner

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=ParsonUponDorothy-Sharp

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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.

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.