An Health To Betty
An Health To Betty is an English Country Dance. It was found in the Lovelace Manuscript (written somewhere around the 1640s) and later published in The English Dancing Master. It was interpreted by Charles Bolton (website) in 1985 and published in Retreads Vol.1. Originally a Duple Minor this version is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 2413. It is a USA dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Lovelace writes:
Leade up once then backe agayne, then sett, then the same againe, then the first couple shall side once, then turne round, then the first man shall goe side with the second woeman, and the first woeman shall goe and side with the second man, and then turne round like as before, and soe after that manner goe round, untill all be in their places;
After siding and setting, as before, the first couple shall fall backe, and then, slide a little downwards, and then take hands, and turne round betweene the 2 next couple, and turn round, then fall backe againe, and slide downward as before, and then turne round betweene the next couple; that againe until all come to their places;
Armes all, then all the rest standing still, the first couple shall fall backe, and then come a little towards one another; againe; and then take both hands, and turne round betweene the next couple, not as before, but turne round betweene the next man and woeman; the other chanig{e} was beyound the next couple; and then goe on the same againe, unto the next couple, until all come to their places;
Playford writes:
Lead up all a D. forward and back, set and turn S. That again First cu. sides, turn her once and an half about Sides each with the 2. and turn them Do thus to the last, the rest following and doing the like.
Sides all, set and turn S That again First cu. meet a D. back again, fall into the 2. places, and turn your own Do this Change to the last, the rest following.
Arms all, set and turn S That again First cu. go a D. back, meet again, take both hanes, slip down between the 2. turn S. Do thus to the last, the rest following.
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 dances of Charles Bolton (including interpretations like 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.
| Intro.A | 1-4 | Up a double, and back |
| 5-8 | Up a Double, and back (again) | |
| Intro.B | 1-4 | Partner set and turn single |
| 5-8 | That again: Set and turn single | |
| A1 | 1-4 | End couples partner right shoulder siding (and fall back) |
| 5-8 | Ends two hand turn once and a half and face neighbors | |
| A2 | 1-4 | Neighbors left shoulder siding |
| 5-8 | Neighbor two hand turn once and a half | |
| B1 | 1-4 | Lines of four forward and back |
| 5-8 | Two hand turn partner once around | |
| B2 | 1-4 | Middle couples (1&4) fall back, and partner change |
| 5-6 | 1s give hands and slip down as 4s separate and slip up to change places | |
| 7-8 | All turn single cloverleaf (top two couples up, bottom two down, all away from partner) | |
| Final.A | 1-4 | Partner set and turn single |
| 5-8 | That again: Set and turn single | |
| Final.B | 1-4 | Up a double, and back |
| 5-6 | Up a double | |
| 7-8 | Step right and honour presence |
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=AHealthToBetty
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1985 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 © 2021 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.