Lady Day ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1698 in The Dancing Master, 10th ed., London. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1991 and published in Retreads Vol.5. Originally proper this version is an improper duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
First man take hands with the 1. and 2. wo. half round; wo. break hands, and cast off; turn the 1. wo. into the 2. wo. place, 1. man at the same time turn the 2. man into his place; then the 2. man take hands with the two women, and do as before; first cu. being in their own places, slip down, the we. within side, and them without side into the 2. cu place, the slip up at the same time; turn single all four, right and left into their own places, then slip down as before, the man within-side, and the wo. without-side, turn single, and men turn by themselves, and wo. doing the like at the same time.
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
Bolton claims this dance appeared in the 7th edition of the Dancing Master (1687), but everyone else says the 10th, in 1698.
The tune was published with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume's software.
The animation plays at 113 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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 Charles Bolton (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license by the CDSS Online Library.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
A1 | 1-2 | M1+women circle three 2/3 |
3-4 | M1+W2 change and face | |
5-8 | Opposite two hand turn, and while turning, circle a quarter round the set | |
A2 | 1-2 | W2+men circle three 2/3 |
3-4 | W2+M1 change and face | |
5-8 | Opposite two hand turn, and while turning, circle a quarter round the set | |
B1 | 1-2 | Chassé to change with neighbor, women inside, men out |
3-4 | Turn single cloverleaf | |
5-8 | Facing partner, three changes of rights and lefts | |
B2 | 1-2 | Chassé to change with neighbor, men inside, women out |
3-4 | Turn single cloverleaf, end facing neighbor | |
5-8 | Neighbor two hand turn |
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=LadyDay
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1991 by Charles Bolton. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA 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.