The Whim
The Whim is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1695 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed.. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.
The two men take hands and fall back, the two we. do the same at the same time, and change places, which makes the men improper; then take hands and fall back as before, and change into their own sides, which makes the men proper as at first The two men go back to back, the two we. do the same at the same time, all four turn S. then right and left with your Partners, the the 1. cu. come into the 2. cu. place
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.
| A1 | 1-2 | Fall back with neighbor |
| 3-6 | Change with partner | |
| A2 | 1-2 | Fall back with neighbor |
| 3-6 | Change with partner | |
| B1 | 1-4 | Neighbor back to back |
| 5-6 | Turn single | |
| B2 | 1-6 | Facing partner, three changes of rights and lefts |
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=TheWhim
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 © 2021-2025 by George W. Williams V
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.