The Temple-Change

The Temple-Change is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The second Part of the Dancing Master, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1916 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 4). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 16 bars.

Playford writes:
All four hands half round and turn single Then hands four half round again to the same The 1. man and 2. woman change places, the 1. woman and 2. man do the same; then all four hands half round, then 1. couple cast off, the 2. proper.

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.

A11-2Circle left half
3-4Turns single left
A21-2Circle left half
3-4Turns single left
B1-41st corners change, 2nd corners change
5-6Circle left half
7-81s 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=TheTempleChange

< Prev Top Next >

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.

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.