The Saraband

The Saraband is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfitzinger (website) in about 2019. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 144 bars. It is in the key: D Minor.

Playford writes

Lead up all forwards and back, that again, set and turn S. That again The two first on each side hands and go a D. back, meet again, go all a D. cross o'er forwards and back, then go round towards the right hand, falling into each others places, set and turn S. Do this change to the last, the rest following.
Sides all, that again, set and turn S. that again First Cu. slip down between the 2. change all four with your own, cast off all four the Co. way, come to the same places again, and change with your own, set and turn S. Do this to the last, the rest following.
Arms all, that again, set and turn S. that again The first four change places with their own, then change with the 2. on the same side, then take right hands across, and go a quarter round, first Cu. fall ito the 2. place, set and turn S. Do thus to the last, the rest following.

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 transcriptions and interpretations of Playford dances found on http://playforddances.com/ from the various editions of The Dancing Master are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

Up a double
 
Up.A11-4Up a Double, and back
Up.A21-4That again: Up a double and back
Up.B11-4Partner set and turn single
Up.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 1 repeats 2 times
 
I.A11-4Fall back with neighbor and come forward
I.A21-4Cross with partner and go beyond, then fall back into partner's place
I.B11-4Face in, take hands, circle right half, fall back to place
I.B21-4Set and turn single
Siding
 
Side.A11-4Right Siding
Side.A21-4Left Siding
Side.B11-4Set and turn single
Side.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 2 repeats 2 times
 
II.A11-21s slip down inside, 2s up outside
3-4Partner change
II.A2B11-61s lead up and cast down as 2s cast down and lead up
7-8Partner change
II.B21-4Set and turn single
Arming
 
Arm.A11-4Right Arming
Arm.A21-4Left Arming
Arm.B11-4Set and turn single
Arm.B21-4That again: Set and turn single
Figure 3 repeats 2 times
 
III.A11-2Partner change by right
3-4Neighbor change by left
III.A21-4Right hands across half (slow)
III.B11-41s slip down inside, 2s up outside (slow)
III.B21-4Set and turn single

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=TheSaraband

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2019 by Scott Pfitzinger. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA 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.