The Happy Couple

The Happy Couple is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1716 and published in Twenty four new Country Dances for the Year 1716, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2017 and published in Elephants Stairs. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 40 bars.

Kynaston writes:

Note: Each strain twice.

First and 2d. man set to their partners turn single change places and change sides then set as before all turn single the 1st. cu. cross up to the top the 2d. cu. change places at the same time Hornpipe. take hands sides and fall back the 1st. cu. cast off turn sides quite round with the 3d. cu. 1st. man go the hey with the 3d. cu. at the same time 1st. wo. go the hey with the 2d. cu. right hands and left half round with the 2d. cu. 1st. and 2d. cu. lead down a breast and turn single then clap hands partners twice with a short stay between each clap 1st. cu. cast off

Originally a triple minor.

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, cast, lead, hey, hey for three, rights and lefts (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=TheHappyCouple

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2017 by Andrew Shaw. 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
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.