Tempête ~ Liller is a European Contredanse. It was published by Johann Nicolaus Liller in 1842 in Tanz-Kunst. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2024. It is a Four Face Four dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
The earliest version of the dance that I have found comes from Leipzig, Germany 1802, in Johann Heinrich Kattfuß's Choregraphie Oder Vollständige Und Leicht Falssiche under the title of "Der Tempẽte". Tempẽte however is a French word so there may well be an earlier French incarnation which I have yet to find.
Liller writes:
ist ein französischer Tanz. Die Tanzenden müssen in folgender Ordnung stehen:
sich das Gesicht zutehrend.
22 11 33 44 is a french dance. The dancers must stand in the following order:
???
22 11 33 44 Hinter biesen Paaren funnen noch viel mehr Paare antreten Many more couples can join in behind these Die in der Mitte gegenüber stehenden Paare führen folgende Tour aus: The couples standing opposite each other in the middle perform the following figures: Erste Tour. Chaîne en quatre. First figure. Rights and lefts for four. Zweite Tour. Moulinet oder Kreuz Second figure. Hands across (or cross). Dritte Tour. Ronde rechts Third figure. Circle right. Vierte Tour. Das erste und zweite Paar chassirt an einander vorüber und wechselt die Plätze, dasselbe thut das dritte und vierte Paare. Hierauf macht das erste und vierte Paar halbe Ronde desgleichen das zweite und dritte Paar, so daß das erste Paar auf die dritte und das vierte Paar auf die zweite Stelle fommt. Fourth figure. The first and second couples chase past each other and switch places, the third and fourth pairs do the same. The first and fourth couples circle half, and the second and third do the same, so that the first couple is where the third couple started, and the fourth where the second did. Funfte Tour. Das erste und zweite Paar chassirt aneinander vorüber und wechselt die Plätze, desgleichen ach das dritte und vierte. Das erste und vierte Paar, somie das zweite und dritte Paar macht halbe Ronde, so daß jedes wieder auf denselben Platz zu stehen tommt. Fifth figure. The first and second couples chase past each other and change places, as do the third and fourth. The first and fourth couples, the second and third couples make circle half, so that everyone ends up in the same place again. Sechste und siebente Tour. Grosse Chaîne Sixth and seventh figures. Grand chain. Achte Tour. Alle vier Paare chassiren gegen einander und wieder zurüd, flatschen in die Hände und chassiren durch einander bergestalt, daß man nun init der zweiten vis à vis gestandenen Partie tanzt. Eighth figure. All four couples forward and back, dropping hands and passing through to the next set of dancers. Beide Paare fangen die bereits beschreiebene Tour mit ben Entgegenfommenden wieder an, und führen sie so lange aus, bis sie aus den Platz des Icssten Paares fommen, worauf sie sich menden und dasselbe bis auf den erten Platz zurüdtenzen. These two couples start the above figure again with the couples waiting for them, and they continue until they reach the end of the line whereupon they turn as couples and do the same thing back to the top. German translation by goggle translate, cleaned up by George Williams
Liller does not print music, but it appears that each of his figures (Tour) takes 4 bars. Note that figures 4+5 and 6+7 will cross an 8 bar strain.
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 dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
A1 | 1-4 | Center four people quick rights and lefts |
5-8 | Same four right hands across | |
A2 | 1-4 | Same four circle right |
5-6 | Switch places with the other couple in your line (left couple moving in, right moving out) | |
7-8 | With the couple you face circle half | |
B1 | 1-2 | Switch places with the other couple in your new line (left couple moving in, right moving out) |
3-4 | With the couple you face circle half (all should now be home) | |
B2 | 1-8 | Face partner, grand chain |
9-10 | Lines of four take hands, quick forward and back | |
11-12 | Drop hands and pass through |
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=Tempete-Liller
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2024 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.