SCA Dance Cheat Sheets

Jenny Pluck Pears

Source: Playford (1651), TPB.

Setting: A circle of 3 couples.

Version: 1.1

Verse:

 1- 4  Take hands in a circle, 8 slip steps to left,
 5- 8  drop hands, face partner, set and turn single.
 9-12  Take hands in a circle, 8 slip steps to right,
13-16  drop hands, face partner, set and turn single.

Chorus:

17-18  First man places first woman into the center of the circle,
        facing him,
19-20  second man does the same,
21-22  third man does the same,
23-24  reverence.

 1- 8  Men skip clockwise around circle, outside women.
 9-16  Men skip counter-clockwise back to place.

17-22  Men hand out women in same order,
23-24  reverence.

Verse:

 1- 4  Side right,
 5- 8  set and turn single.
 9-12  Side left,
13-16  set and turn single.

Chorus, women handing in men and skipping.

Verse:

 1- 4  Arm right,
 5- 8  set and turn single.
 9-12  Arm left,
13-16  set and turn single.

Chorus, men handing in women and skipping.

Discussion:

Bars 17-24 are slower than bars 1-16, often much slower, and sometimes have 4 notes played during a fermatta in bar 24 to clue the dancers and musicians into the tempo of the forthcoming fast section.

As usual, Playford specifies doubles for the first verse, while Sharp and the SCA use a slipping circle.