Row Well, Ye Mariners ~ Bolton
Row Well, Ye Mariners ~ Bolton is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1992 and published in Retreads Vol.6. Found in The Playford Assembly. Originally proper this version is a Circle as many as will dance. There is no progression in this dance. Originally this was a single progression dance. It is a mixer. The dance lasts 24 bars. It is in the key: G major.
Lead up a D. forwards and back That again First man two slips cross the Room one way, the woman the other Back again to your places Fall back both Meet again Clap both your own hands, then clap each other's right-hands against one another's; clap both your own hands again, then clap left-hands, then clap both hands again, then clap your breasts, then meet both your hands against one-another The same again, only clap left-hands first
First man sides with the next wo. and his wo. with the next man, doing the like till you come to your own places, the rest following and doing the same.
The tune was published with the dance. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album Strong Roots. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
The dances of Charles Bolton (including 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 | 1-4 | Right shoulder siding |
| A2 | 1-4 | Left shoulder siding |
| B1,B2 | 1-4 | In long lines slip left, then right |
| C1,C2 | 1-4 | Partner back to back |
| D1 | 1-4 | Clap: own hands, partner's right, own, left, cross on own shoulders, both partner's hands |
| D2 | 1-2 | Set |
| 3-4 | Move one position right until across from next person of opposite sex (skip one person, go to the next) |
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.
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1992 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 © 2020 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 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.