Slaughter House

Slaughter House is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1702 in Twenty Four New Country Dances, 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 32 bars.

Playford writes:
The 1. man, and 1. and 2. we. take hands, and go a whole round to their places Then 1. man and 2. wo. and 2. man do the same The 1. man and 1. wo cross over into the 2. cu. places, then lead up all 4 abreast, and back again; the 1. man and 1. wo. cross over, and go half the Figure of 8 into the 2. cu. place, and right and left till you come into your own places, the 1. man and 1. wo. lead down between and 2. cu. and cast up to the top, all 4 clap hands, the 1. man and 1. wo. cast off into the 2. cu. place.

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.

A11-41s+W2 circle three
5-82s+M1 circle three
A21-41s cross go below 2s cast up into the middle of a line of four
5-8Line of four up a double and fall back, bending the line
B1-41s half figure 8 up
5-8Three changes of a circular hey starting with partner
9-121s lead down and cast home
13-14Clap: Own hands, partner's right, own, partner's left
15-161s cast down as 2s move up

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=SlaughterHouse

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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.