Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Hillgrove

Pop Goes the Weasel ~ Jennings Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Porter Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Hillgrove Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Sharp #1 Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Sharp #2 Pop Goes the Weasel ~ Ford

Pop Goes The Weasel ~ Hillgrove is an English Country Dance. It was published by Thomas Hillgrove in 1857 in The Scholar's Companion and Ball-Room Vade-Mecum, New York. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

According to Wikipedia this country dance first became popular in December of 1852 in Brighton. In New York, 1853, Eugene Coulon edited a version with music and a description of the figure . A textual source from 1857 is Hillgrove's The Scholar's Companion and Ball-Room Vade-Mecum (available from the Library of Congress).

The American Dancing Master - Howe, 1862, and American Country Dances - Emma Burchenal, 1918 have the same version as Hillgrove (the one presented here).

Hillgrove writes

This is performed in the same manner as the Country Dance, the ladies and gentlemen being placed in lines opposite to each other.

The couple at the top begin the figure. The run forward with the line and back, and then without the line and back again the same, each occupying four bars (16 bars).

After which they form a round of three, with one of the ladies next to them on the line, and turn once round to the right and once to the left, at the end of which making the one they have chosen pass quickly underneath their arms to her place - all singing "Pop goes the Weasel." (8 bars.)

They then turn quickly to the other line, and repeat the same figure with the partner of the last selected. (8 bars.)

After this they have to run forward and backward, inside and outside the line, and repeat the same figure with the next couple. When they have passed three couples, the lady and gentleman at the head begin and repeat the same figure, and so on for all the rest.

Surprisingly (to me anyway) the "popping" figure is not unique to this dance. It also shows up Wilson's Rural Felicity from A Companion to the Ballroom, 1816.

The tune is a traditional one which became popular in the 1850 on both sides of the Atlantic. The music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software

The animation plays at 113 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.

A11-81s lead down, turn and lead up
A21-81s go down the outside, turn and return
B11-81s+W2 circle three right, then back by the left halfway, W2 pops through (sing 'Pop Goes the Weasel')
B21-81s+M2 circle three right, then back by the left halfway, M2 pops through (sing 'Pop Goes the Weasel')

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=PopGoesTheWeasel

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.