Epsom New Wells ~ Sharp
Epsom New Wells ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Young (Playford family) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 24 bars.
Sharp implies this comes from the Dancing Master, but Walsh published it first in his annual for 1708.
Note: Each Strain is to be Play'd twice over.
The first Man turn the second Woman, and cast up round the second Man into his own Place, the second Woman casting off round the first Woman into her own place at the same Time The second Man and first Woman do the same Then the first Couple lead thro' the third Couple, the second Couple following them, all to their own Places Then lead to the Wall and back again, all four Foot it to their Partner; the first Couple cast off, and the second Couple turn up the middle
There is an earlier Playford dance called Epsom Wells. In some editions "Epsom" is spelled "Epsome".
Playford's tune is triple time AABB with both A and B 4 bars, Sharp's is double time ABB with both A and B 8 bars.
The 3s do nothing (except maybe set). I'd dance this as a duple minor (Andrew Shaw has a duple interpretation).
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.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| A | 1-4 | M1+W2 right turn half then loop clockwise around neighbor to return home |
| 5-8 | W1+M2 right turn half then loop clockwise around partner to return home | |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s lead down as 2s cast up and follow to the bottom |
| 5-8 | ...cast up and return to places | |
| B2 | 1-4 | 1s+2s lead neighbor out, turn, lead back |
| 5-6 | Partners set | |
| 7-8 | 1s cast down as 2s lead up |
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=EpsomNewWells
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.
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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.