Chester Ladies is an English Country Dance. It was devised by Nathaniel Kynaston in 1717 and published in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1717. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2006 and published in Emperor of the Moon. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the men are permuted by: 312 and the women by: 231. It is a mixer. The minor set lasts 44 bars.
Kynaston writes:
The first strain twice, the last but once
The 1st. and 2d. wo. take hands lead to their partners & cast off, the 1st. wo. take the 2d. wo. by her left hand the 1st. man by his right hand & turn quite round the 1st. man do the same 1st. wo. take the 1st. man by his right hand lead him below the 2d. wo. go through the 2d. & 3d. man & cast off, the 1st. man clap hands, once with the 2d. man & once with the 2d. wo. the 1st. wo. do the same at the same time wth the 3d. cu. & turn partners the 1st. cu. lead through the 2d. cu. and cast off.
Originally a triple minor (and not a mixer).
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: set, turn single, circle, cast, lead, lead and cast, siding, back to back (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=ChesterLadies
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2006 by Andrew Shaw. 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
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.