Sion House

Sion House is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1686 in The Dancing Master, 7th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: F major.

Playford writes:
First man and first wo. and 2. man and 2. wo. take hands, and go half round and turn S. while the 1. wo. cross over with the 2. man, then all four take hands and go half round, and the 2. wo. cross over with the 1. man; the other cu. do the like. This to the first Strain.
The two we. being now in the men's places stand still while the two men lead between them round into their own places, then each take hands with their own, and turn till the we. come into their own places again, the the two we. take hands and lead betwixt the two men, and go round into their own places again, then the 1. cu. being now in the 2. cu. place, go the half Figure, thill they come into the 2. cu. place. This to the second Strain played twice.

The tune was published with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album Strong Roots. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 95 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.

A11-2Circle left half
3-42nd corners change as 1st turn single left
A21-2Circle left half
3-41st corners change as 2nd turn single left
B11-4Men lead through women, cast back to place
5-8Partner two hand turn once and a half
B21-4Women lead through men, cast back to place
5-81s half figure 8 up, then cross to change places

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=SionHouse

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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 © 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.