Newcastle ~ Barraclough or Newcastle United is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Michael Barraclough (website) in 2001. It is a Square dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 96 bars. It is in the key: G Major.
Meet all, back again, set to your own, and to the next That again Arms all with your own by the right, men all fall with your left hands into the middle, we. go round, then to your places Arms again with your own, and we. left hands in, men go about them towards the left to your places Sides all with your own, and change places with them Sides with the next, and change places with them The first man and 3. wo. take hands and meet, the first wo. and 3. man lead out again, then holding up your hands, the other four cast off and come under your arms to their places The other four the like Arms all with your we. and change places with them Arms with the next, and change places Now every man is with his own wo. in the co. place. Fall back from each other four and four abreast to each wll, turn and change places with your opposites Fall back from each other four and four along the Room, turn S, change places with your opposite So each falls into his own place as at first.
Michael has found an alternate source for this dance, in an undated manuscript (thought to be mid-seventeenth century) found in the British Library, catalogued as Add MSS 41996F. Michael provides two quotes from it in his dance analysis but not the whole thing. Nor does it seem to be in the British Library's online collecion (at least, I can't find it).
This manuscript has some differences from Playford's version, and Michael bases his interpretation on both sources.
This interpretation is unusual in that the men are on the right and the women on the left
In Part 2.B Michael says "do a grand square". I think he means "do half a grand square". A true grand square takes 16 bars, the last 8 being the reverse of the first. There are only 8 bars here. It is, however, the figure described in Hunsdon House, and he claims the manuscript supports this (but doesn't quote it).
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. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
The dance contains the following figures: USA, set, turn single, circle, lead, hands across, grand square, siding, arming (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=Newcastle-Barraclough
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2001 by Michael Barraclough. 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
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.