Hamstead Heath #1

Hamstead Heath #1 is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, London. It was interpreted by Scott Pfizinger in about 2019. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Playford writes:

The first man go with inside of the second man, then go round about him and stand below the third man. This to the first Strain play'd once. Then the first woman do the same. This to the first Strain play'd twice. The first couple being below the third couple cross over above the third couple, and so above the second couple into their own places. This to the second Strain play'd once The first man take hands with his Partner and lead down the second couple lead up again into their own places and cast off.This to the second Strain play'd twice.

The A music is 8 bars and the B music 16. Scott Pfitzinger points out that there is only enough movement for once through the B music (rather than twice as Playford calls for).

The 3s do nothing, and the 2s only cast. Might as well make this a duple minor. So I have modified it slightly to do so.

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: set, cast, lead, lead and cast, cross go below (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=HamsteadHeath1

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2019 by Scott Pfizinger. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.