Cheshire Rounds ~ Neal

Cheshire Rounds ~ Neal Cheshire Rounds ~ Bolton

Cheshire Rounds ~ Neal is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1701 in The Dancing Master, 11th ed., London. It was interpreted by John & William Neal, Rich Jackson & George Fogg in 1726 and published in A Choice Collection of Country Dances. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 16 bars.

Playford writes:
The 1. man casts off and his Partner follows him, the man goes quite round, the woman slips up the middle, the woman casts off and goes quite round the 1. man slips up the middle, the 1. cu. ross over below the 2. cu. and cross up into their own places again, then right and left quite round into the 2. couples places.

The Neals' version seems very similar:

1st ma: casts off goes round 2d cu: into his partners place his partner following him she slipping betweene 2d cu: into his place:
she casts off goes round he following her & slipps twixt 2d cu: into his own place & she into her's:
1st cu: cross over & goe quite round 2d cu: into their own place's:
Then right & left:

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.

A11-4M1 cast down around both 2s up to partner's place, W1 follows up middle to his place
A21-4W1 cast down around both 2s up to partner's place, M1 follows up middle to her place
B11-41s cross, go below 2s, cross back up to places
B21-4Face partner, three changes of rights and lefts

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=CheshireRounds-Neal

< 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 © 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
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.