Treat 'Em All Right ~ The Running Set

Treat 'Em All Right ~ The Running Set is an Appalachian Circle Dance. It was published by Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles in 1918 in The Country Dance Book (Part 5). It is a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 308 bars.

The Kentucky Running Set is the name Sharp gave to a style of dancing he found in the Southern Appalachians when he visited in 1917. The locals called the dances square dances even though they were often danced in large circles. Sharp, however, describes squares, and this is an attempt to follow his description.

I have, however, changed the calls into modern terms because I find the old terms confusing. "Swing corners" seems to mean "allemande left" rather than what "swing" means to me.

This style of dance begins with a common introduction:

Then starts the first figure: the first couple moves right to the 2nd couple and does some figure with them. Then they move on to the next couple (3s) and do the same figure. Then on to the last couple and do the same figure. Then they do a do-si with that couple and promenade home.

At this point they would do the introduction again, and the 1st couple would start with a new figure, and so forth.

For this figure, Sharp writes:

The first man turns his partner once round with the left hand, and then turns the second woman in like manner.

The first man turns his partner with the left hand, and then turns the third woman in like manner.

The first man turns his partner with the left hand, and then turns the fourth woman in like manner.

The first man turns his partner with the left hand, then fourth woman with the left hand, third woman with the right hand, second woman with the left hand, and finally, partner with the right hand.

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.

Intro
 
1-6Introduction: Circle left
7-8Partner two hand turn
9-10Corner two hand turn
11-16Promenade partner home
17-20Heads circle four
21-28Do-si
29-34Left hand turn and promenade home
35-38Sides circle four
39-46Do-si
47-52Left hand turn and promenade home
Grand Promenade
 
1-4Grand Promenade: Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
9-12Promenade half round
13-16Turn inward to face back and promenade home
17-20Partner two hand turn
21-24Corner two hand turn
25-32Promenade once around
Figure
 
1-4$1 couple left turn into the middle
5-8$1 man left turn $2 lady
9-12Partner left
13-16Next lady left
17-20Partner left
21-24Last lady left
25-28Partner left
29-32$4 lady left
33-36$3 lady right
37-40$2 lady left
41-44Partner right
Little Promenade
 
1-4Little Promenade: Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
9-16Promenade once around
Figure
Little Promenade
Figure
Little Promenade
Figure

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=TreatEmAllRight-RunningSet

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The dance is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.