Staines Morris

Staines Morris or Stanes Morris is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1911 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 2). Originally a 3 Couple Longways this version is a proper Longways as many as will dance. In this dance the men are permuted by: 123 and the women by: 312. It is a mixer. The minor set lasts 40 bars.

Playford writes:

Lead up all a D. forward and back That again All a D. to the left hand Back again Set and turn S. that again

First man goe downe between the rest to the last Wo. Sides once with her Take her by one hand Then by the other Turne her halfe about holding both hands and salute her, as much the other way Bring her up

Lead up as at the first As at the 1 time As at the first time

Tis as the 2. time As the 2. time As the 2. time

Do thus till you have fetcht up all the We.

This is a dance for as many as will, it is repeated until everyone has their original partners back. It is not a Morris dance.

In this dance M1 does a lot and the other men nothing at all. The men do not even progress. The women do, but only one woman is active at a time.

I have changed this so that other couples duplicate the behavior of the actives.

Playford calls for the active couple to join first one hand, then the other. Sharp added setting to this process.

Remember "salute" meant "kiss".

Staines is a town south of the Thames, on the west side of London. In the Doomsday Book it is spelled "Stanes". My reproduction of The English Dancing Master spells it as "Staines" in the index, and "Stanes" on the dance page.

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.

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=StainesMorris

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

I.A	1-4	Up a double, and fall back
	5-8	That again
I.B	1-4	Face men's wall, take hands, forward a double, fall back, face in
I.C	1-4	Partner set and turn single
	5-8	That again
II.A	1-4	M1 moves down the middle to stand in front of the last woman, other men move up one place
	5-8	Side right with current partner
II.B	1-2	Set, clasping right hands
	3-4	Set again, clasping left as well
II.C	1-2	Crossed two hand turn left halfway (clockwise) and salute/kiss
	3-4	Turn right halfway and salute/kiss
	5-8	Bottom pair move up to top, others slipping down one place

Lead up all a D. forward and back That again	All a D. to the left hand Back again	Set and turn S. that again

First man goe downe between the rest to the last Wo. Sides once with her	Take her by one hand Then by the other	Turne her halfe about holding both hands and salute her, as much the other way Bring her up

Lead up as at the first	As at the 1 time	As at the first time

Tis as the 2. time	As the 2. time	As the 2. time

Do thus till you have fetcht up all the We.