Eltham Assembly
Eltham Assembly is an English Country Dance. It was published by David Rutherford in 1756 in Rutherford's compleat Collection of 200 of the most celebrated Country Dances both Old and New, Vol. 1, London. It was interpreted by A. Simons (mod) in about 1990 and published in Kentish Hops. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 312. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Rutherford writes:
The first Cou. leads down between the 2d. Cou. foot it lead up again & cast off Clap Hands Sides & to your Partner and right Hand & Left up into the 2d Couples Place Hands round all six & turn
Simons says the 1s and 3s should change places at the end of B2, but that means the 1s end at the top where they started. So it is not a permutation which works for a three couple dance. Now the 2s are in the place where the 3s normally are, so perhaps he meant the 1s and 2s (in 3rd place) should channge? But that leaves the 2s in the middle where they started and again the permutation doesn't work. On the other hand if everyone two hand turns and stays put they are in a valid permutation and the progression works.
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 dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, circle, cast, lead, rights and lefts, siding (and probably others).
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=ElthamAssembly
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~1990 by A. Simons (mod). 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
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.