The Round

The Round 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). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: D minor.

Playford writes:

Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.

The 1. cu. turn both Hands down between the 2. cu , the 2. cu turn down below the 1. cu. the 1 and 2. Men slip up, the 1. and 2. Wo. down, and come into their own places, then Arms round with their own Partners
The 1. and 2. Man fall back and meet up, the 1. and 2. Wo. do the same at the same time, then all four turn single; the 1. cu. slide down the middle, and the 2. cu. up at the same time, then Right and Left quite round, and Arms round till done.

Although this dance had a tune of the same name in Playford, Sharp substituted, Mr. Lane's Maggot, from a differnt Playford dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album A Playford Ball. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.

The animation plays at 116 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.

A11-41s two hand spiral down (skipping) as 2s cast up
5-82s two hand spiral down as 1s cast up
A21-4Without hands, men and women's lines move four slip steps left and four back
5-8Partners arm right
B11-4Fall back a double, come forward
5-6Turn single
7-81s take hands and slip down the center as 2s slip up outside
B21-4Face partner, four changes of a circular hey
5-8Partners arm right

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=TheRound

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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.