Portsmouth - Neal is an English Country Dance. It was published by John & William Neal in 1726 in A Choice Collection of Country Dances. It was interpreted by Rich Jackson & George Fogg in 1990. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
The Neals write:
1st ma: hey wth the 2d &3d wo: his par: ye wth 2d & 3d men at ye same time ending improper:
1st cu: cross over into 2d cu: place & turn both hands end proper:
The 3 first men take hands, fall back, dance, ye 3 first women ye at ye same time, & each man turn his partner:
The 3 first cu: take hands in a ring half round to ye left yn to ye right & 1st cu: stop in 2d cu: place:
Playford in 1701 published a dance with the same name and tune but a different figure.
The first man Hey with the first and second woman, the first woman do the same with the first and second man; then the first couple cross over and Figure in; then right and left quite round.
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, circle, lead, hey, mirror hey, siding, 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=Portsmouth-Neal
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1990 by Rich Jackson & George Fogg. 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
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.