Paul's Alley

Paul's Alley 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 Bernard Bentley in 1962 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 1. Found in The Playford Assembly. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 16 bars.

Playford writes:
The first Couple take both Hands and turn down the middle into the second Couples Place, while the second Couple cast up slow and meet above This to the first Strain play'd once. The same again, that is the second Couple turn down the middle and the first Couple cast up. This to the first Strain play'd twice. The two Men lead out to the Wall quick, then change Hands and lead in again, then both turn round single and Floor it, or Foot it twice, the Women doing the same at the same Time. This to the last Strain play'd once. Then beginning with your Partners, go Right hands and Left half round. This to the last Strain play'd twice

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, hey, circular hey (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=PaulsAlley

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1962 by Bernard Bentley. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.