Row Well Ye Mariners; or, Sailors' Clap Dance (The)
Introduction
Author:
Michael Barraclough (1970s)
Formation:
Circle improper, (mixer)
Music:
Specific tune - Row Well Ye Mariners, Dancing Master 1651-1628 (G, 6/8, Barnes: 2/110)
Choreography
A1
1-4
Side-by-side right & back
A2
1-4
Side-by-side left & back
B1
1-2
Slip sideways left and jump
B2
1-2
Slip sideways right and jump
C1
1-2
Fall back a double (moving right, men in, ladies out)
C2
1-2
Come forward a double (moving left)
D1
1-4
Partner clap hands: own, rights, own, lefts, own, cross your heart, pause, both (with your partner)
D2
1-4
Partner clap hands: own, lefts, own, rights, own, cross your heart, pause, both (with your partner)
A3
Move on to next partner while siding right
© Michael Barraclough, 2017
Notes
Notes
1
The dance was originally a longways single minor that I have converted to a circle (subtitled 'The Sailor's Clap Dance')
2
The jumps in A2 are appropriate seventeenth century embellishments.
3
Cecil Sharp and George Butterworth interpreted this dance in Country Dance Book 3 (1912) but despite the diagrams in Feuillet and Weaver, they got it hopelessly wrong.
4
Meillionen (Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances Vol 1) is exactly the same choreography set to a different tune. The Welsh Folk Dance Society claim this as a 'Welsh' dance with a completely different interpretation.
5
Les Mariners in Recueil de Nouvelles Contredances (Dezais, 1712) is similar, but duple minor. It also appears to show 'swirly' siding, but starting right shoulder!
6
The tune (Roowe well ye marynors) was first registered in 1565 for a ballad, followed by many subsequent ballads including John and Joan in Pills to Purge Melancholy Vol 4 (1719)
7
Chartles Bolton has a horrendous reconstruction in Retreads Vol 6 (1992) which is reproduced in the Playford Assembly (Graham Christian, 2015).
8
Music
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