Pool's Hole

Pool's Hole is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1690 in The Dancing Master, 8th ed., London. It was interpreted by Christine Robb in about 2011. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: D minor.

Playford writes:

First cu. cast off to the second proper, and then the Figure to the second improper, then the men change places and two we. the like then all hands quite round ? and right and left (with your own first) to the second proper.

The music consists of a four bar strain and an eight bar strain.

Playford's instructions will leave the 1s proper and the 2s improper before the rights and lefts. Scott Pfitzinger suggests the 1s do three changes and the 2s only two, (starting left hands with neighbor).

In the 17th edition, in 1721, John Young provided a different figure for the same music (and name).

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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: set, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, double figure eight, rights and lefts, back to back (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=PoolsHole

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2011 by Christine Robb. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.