The Queen's Birthday ~ Sharp

The Queen's Birthday ~ Sharp The Queen's Birthday ~ Callens

The Queen's Birthday ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1703 in The Dancing Master, 12th 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 24 bars.

Playford writes:
The first Man turn the second Woman with the RIght-hand, then turn the second Man with his Left, then to his own Place The first Woman turn the second Man with her Right-hand, and the second Woman with her Left, the to her own Place Then cross over the second Couple, then Figure through the fist Couple, and turn in the second Couples Place.

For some reason Sharp has elected not to follow Playford in the A section. Playford has each 1 turn each 2. Sharp has them only turn their corner.

The instructions for B1, 1-4 are very weird, not what Playford says, and I doubt if they can be done in the time allowed, personally I prefer Callens's interpretation.

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.

A11-41st corners right hand turn
5-81st corners left hand turn
A21-42nd corners right hand turn
5-82nd corners left hand turn
B1-41s cross, go below inside, M1 loop counter-clockwise around W2's spot while W1 loop clockwise around M2's spot then cross again to end progressed and proper (2s move up)
5-8Partner two hand turn

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=TheQueensBirthday-Sharp

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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 © 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.