Johnny Cock Thy Beaver

Johnny Cock Thy Beaver is an English Country Dance. It was published by Thompson in 1765 in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol. 2, London. It was interpreted by Bernard Bentley in 1977 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 5. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 312. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Thompson writes:
The first Cu: cast off one Cu: & cross over below the 3d. Cu: & turn The 2d. Cu: do the same The 1st. Man foot it to the 3d. Wo. & turn her his partner foot it to the 2d. Man and turn him at the same time, then lead out on the Mens side & turn foot it the other corners and turn lead out on the Wo: side and turn

Presumably this was intended as a triple minor, but Thompson's instructions don't work for one. The 3s shoot quickly to the top, while the 1s+2s each move down one place. 2s will remain 2s all the way to the bottom, 3s remain 3s all the way to the top.

Playford has a dance with this name and tune from 1686, but the figure is different. Wilson has a dance with this name in 1816 but a different tune and figure.

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: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, lead, cross go below (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=JohnnyCockThyBeaver

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1977 by Bernard Bentley. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2022 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.