The Merry Haymakers ~ Burchenal

The Merry Haymakers ~ Burchenal The Merry Haymakers ~ Howe

The Merry Haymakers ~ Burchenal is an American Country Dance. It was published by Elias Howe in 1858 in The Complete Ball-Room Hand-Book. It was interpreted by Emma Burchenal in 1918 and published in American Country Dances. It is an improper duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Howe writes in 1858:

All balance, swing four hands round to place — half promenade, half right and left — ladies chain — all forward and back, forward and pass on to the next couple (one couple raises their hands while the other stoops and passes through.)

Schell writes in 1890:

Form as for Sicilian Circle
All balance (4); four hands round (4); half promenade (4); right and left to place (4); ladies chain (8); forward and back (4); pass by to next couple (4).

(Note: Schell's version does not have a partner swing)

Burchenal writes:

(1-4) Swing Partner
(5-8) Four Hands Around
(9-12) Half Promenade
(13-16) Half Right and Left
(1-8) Ladies' Chain
(9-12) Forward and Back
(13-16) Forward and Pass Through

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.

A1-4Partner swing
5-8Circle four
9-12Promenade halfway round the minor set
13-16Right and left four half
B1-8Ladies' chain, over and back
9-12Lead partner in and fall back
13-162s arch, 1s duck, pass through

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=TheMerryHaymakers-Burchenal

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. 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
Creative Commons License 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.