Perfections of Love ~ Cook
Perfections of Love ~ Cook is an English Country Dance. It was published by Wright in 1740 in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, Vol. 1. It was interpreted by Tom Cook in 1979 and published in Again Let's Be Merry. Originally a Duple Minor this version is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 14 bars.
Wright writes:
The 1st Man sett to the 2d. Wo. and fall back and turn S. then 1st Wo. sett to the 2d. Man and fall back and turn S. the 1st Man change places with the 2d. Wo. and 1st Wo. change places with 2d. Man at the same time then the 1st. Cu. being in the 2d. Cu. place, lead thro' cast off and turn
Tom Cook says the dance can be done as a duple minor (by doing a half figure eight through the 2s below. Since the original was a duple minor with a lead and cast through the 2s above the conversion to a triple minor seems very strange to me.
Wright seems to imply that the corners should set forward, but Cook doesn't say to do that.
I'm perplexed as to why Cook took his interpretation so far from the original. This is the only dance I know of where someone turned a duple minor into a triple minor.
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, turn single, circle, figure eight, polka, set and turn corners (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=PerfectionsOfLove
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1979 by Tom Cook. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2025 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.