The Bonniest Lass in all the World ~ Thompson
The Bonniest Lass in all the World ~ Thompson is an English Country Dance. It was published by Thompson in about 1757 in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol I, London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2023. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 48 bars.
Thompson writes:
The 1st. Cu. Foot it and turn then Foot it sides and turn then lead down two Cu. cast up one and Foot it and Right hands and Left at top The 1st. Man hands 3 round with the 3rd. Cu. and the 1st. Wo. hands 3 round with the 2nd. Cu. then the Man hands round with the 2nd. Cu. and the Wo. with the 3rd. Cu. lead out sides and turn
The music consists of 2 eight bar strains, both repeated, but we need 6 strains of music. I don't know if it is better to have AAABBB, ABABAB or AABBAB or what.
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 dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-4 | 1s set twice |
| 5-8 | 1s two hand spiral down to 2nd place as the 2s long cast up | |
| A2 | 1-4 | Lines of three on the sides set twice |
| 5-8 | 1s two hand turn | |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s lead below 3s and cast back to 2nd place |
| 5-8 | 1s set twice | |
| B2 | 1-8 | 1s+2s face partner, four changes of rights and lefts |
| A3 | 1-4 | W1+2s, M1+3s circle three left |
| 5-8 | M1+2s, W1+3s circle three left | |
| B3 | 1-4 | 1s lead out sides: 1s lead out between inactive women, loop around them back to center and two hand turn half, facing men |
| 5-8 | 1s lead out between inactive men and loop around them back to 2nd place own side |
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=TheBonniestLassInAllTheWorld-Thompson
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2023 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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
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.