The Tempest ~ Washburn/Modern
The Tempest ~ Washburn/Modern is a New England Contra Dance. It was devised by Washburn in 1855 and published in The Ball Room Manual, Belfast, Me. It is a Tempest dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Washburn's The Ball Room Manual, 1855 (printed in Boston, distributed in Maine) contains:
[In taking places for this dance the dancers form in two lines, facing each other, the lady on the same side as her partner at his right. There should be an even number of couples on each side.]
The first and second couple (the couple directly opposite) down the middle four abreast, and break to the right and left; the first couple right and left with the third, and the second couple the same with the fourth; first and third ladies chain, and second and fourth the same; then the first and second couple balance to each other, swing four. The same four dance together down the whole set
As I understand this description it is an early version of the "tempest" formation for a four couple minor set dance. As was usually at this time, the dance starts with only the dancers in the top minor set active.
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.
| 1-4 | Lines of four go down the hall, and turn as a couple |
| 5-8 | Lines of four up the middle and face nearest side couple |
| 9-16 | With the side couple, four changes of rights and lefts |
| 17-24 | Ladies chain, over and back |
| 25-28 | Active couples meet in the middle and set to each other |
| 29-32 | Active couples circle left four into a line ready to lead down |
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=TheTempest-Modern-Washburn
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. 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 © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.