The Soldier and the Sailor ~ Andrew Shaw

A Soldier and a Sailor ~ Pat Shaw The Soldier and the Sailor ~ Andrew Shaw

The Soldier and the Sailor ~ Andrew Shaw is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1696 in The second Part of the Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Andrew Shaw in 2006 and published in Emperor of the Moon. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 48 bars.

The dance was called variously: The Soldier and the Sailer, The Soldier and the Sailor, A Soldier and A Sailer, and A Soldier and a Saylor in various editions.

Playford writes:
The 1. cu lead between the 2. cu. then cast up and go the Figure, then meet their own Partner a Change, sides and cast off into the 2. cu. place; the 2. cu. do the same. This to the first Strain twice. The 1. man thurn the 2. wo. with the right-hand and go into their own places; the 2. cu. do the same, then clap hands with their Partners, and the 1. cu. cast off. This to the second Strain once. Take hands with your Partners, and draw aside back to back till you come into your own places again; the lead through and cast off. This to the second Strain twice.

This is basically the same as Pat Shaw's interpretation, the differences being:

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), cast, lead, figure eight, poussette, lead and cast (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=TheSoldierAndTheSailor

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2006 by Andrew Shaw. 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.

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.