Pretty Nun ~ Kennedy
Pretty Nun ~ Kennedy is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1726 in The Dancing Master, The Third Volume, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by Douglas & Helen Kennedy in 1929 and published in Country Dance Book, New Series. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 20 bars.
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The first Couple take both Hands, the second do the same and go round into each others Place The same back again Then the first Man change Places with the second Woman, then the second Man with the first Woman, and all four turn Single Then Hands across and turn quite round, then the first Couple turn Proper
I think Playford is describing a poussette in the A part. The Kennedies say First and second couples swing and change places. Now the turn swing is ambiguous. In part 1 of the Country Dance Book Sharp uses the term to mean the swing in Ballroom position of a modern Contra Dance, but the turn also was used to mean a two hand turn in earlier works. Given what Playford says, I assume the Kennedies mean a two hand turn.
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: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, hands across (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=PrettyNun
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1929 by Douglas & Helen Kennedy. 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
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.