Boys and Girls Come Out To Play, The New Way
Boys and Girls Come Out To Play, The New Way is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1726 in The Dancing Master, The Third Volume, 2nd ed., London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2022. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 20 bars. It is in the key: B# Major.
Playford (John Young) writes:
Note: The first Strain must be play'd twice, the second three times.
The first Man turn off, and go out a little sideways, beckning his Partner, she turns herself into his place The second Woman turn up, going a little sideways, and beckons her Partner, he turning himself between the two Women, making a row with the first Man and Woman, take all Hands, the first Man leading them round; the third couple falling into their right places ·: The first Couple clap Hands and cast off ·:
The music is a jig with two four bar strains. Playford's marks are not as helpful as one might wish.
The first strain mark is after the first couple positions themselves, so presumably the second couple's positioning takes as long. The 2 more strains to circle around the 3s, and a final strain for the clap hands and cast.
The 1s and 2s form a line, that is clear. M2 is between the women. Presumable corners mirror each other, so W1 is between the men, giving us M1 W1 M2 W2 in order.
Now does the line run up and down, or across? Leading around the 3s and coming back to place is easier if the line is across so let's assume that.
I think in this context The first Man turn off means the same as "cast off".
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 George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-4 | M1 long cast to a spot outside the men's line between the 1s and 2s, while W1 cross the set to end between the sidelines |
| A2 | 1-4 | W2 long cast to a spot outside the women's line between the 1s and 2s, while M1 cross the set to end between the two women |
| B1+2 | 1-8 | Take hands in a line of four across and lead around the 3s and back to original places |
| B3 | 1-2 | 1s clap hands: own, partner's right, own, partner's left |
| 3-4 | 1s cast down as 2s lead up |
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=BoysAndGirlsComeOutToPlayTheNewWay
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 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
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.