The Princess 1701 ~ Sharp

The Princess 1701 ~ Hume The Princess 1701 ~ Sharp

The Princess 1701 ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1701 in The Dancing Master, 11th ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: G minor.

There are two dances called The Princess in Playford (with the same music though). One is found from 1701 to 1716 and the other from 1721 to 1728. The version from 1701 (shown here) is more commonly danced now-a-days.

Playford writes
The two first men and two first women fall back, and meet and turn all single, the 1st couple lead down the middle and set to their Partners, the second couple do the same. First Strain twice
The first man and woman take hands and the second man and second woman take hands and draw the Partners into each others place, the 1st man and 1st woman lead through the second couple and come into the second couples place, then right and left quite round, and turn their own Partners till the Tune is done. The second Strain twice.

The tune, also called The Princess, appeared in Playford with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album By Choice. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 113 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.

A11-4Fall back with neighbor, come forward turning single
5-61s lead down, 2s cast up
7-8Partner set
A21-8That again: fall back, turn single forward, 1s cast 2s lead, turn single
B11-4Join hands with partner, M1 falls back (dragging partner) on the woman's side as W2 falls up on the men's all end improper progressed
5-81s lead up and cast back
B21-6Four changes of a circular hey (no hands)
7-8Partner two hand turn half

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=ThePrincess1701

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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.