Broom, The Bonny, Bonny Broom ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Playford (website) in 1651 in The English Dancing Master, London. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1912 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 3). Found in The Playford Ball. It is a proper 4 Couple Longways dance. There is no progression in this dance. It is a USA dance. The dance lasts 96 bars. It is in the key: F major.
Lead up all a D. forward and back, the first four cast off and come to your places, the last four do the like Lead down, and as much First and 3. cu. meet and go back, hands and go round ·: The other four as much
Sides all, set and turn S. That again The two first men hands and change places, the last two men change, we. doing the same, set and turn S. All that again ·:
Sides all, set and turn S. That again The 2. and 3. on each side lead to each wall, while the first cu. lead up, and the last lead down; change hands and meet; hands all and half round ·: All that again
The tune published by Playford has the A tune repeated 4 times in each part of the dance (and no B tune). Phil Merrill has written a B tune for it. So the music here is AABB repeated 3 times. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album At Home. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 94 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
I.A1 | 1-4 | Up a Double, and back |
5-8 | Top two couples face up, bottom two down, cast to middle, lead to places | |
I.A2 | 1-4 | Down a Double, back |
5-8 | Top two couples face up, bottom two down, cast to middle, lead to places | |
I.B1 | 1-8 | 1s face 3s, forward a double to meet, fall back, circle four, fall back to places as 2s move out of the way |
I.B2 | 1-8 | 2s face 4s, forward a double to meet, fall back, circle four, fall back to places as 3s move out of the way |
II.A1 | 1-4 | Swirly Siding |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
II.A2 | 1-4 | Swirly Siding |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
II.B1 | 1-2 | Top couples neighbor two hand turn half |
3-4 | Bottom couples neighbor two hand turn half | |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
II.B2 | 1-8 | That again: two hand turn half, set and turn single |
III.A1 | 1-4 | Right Arming |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
III.A2 | 1-4 | Left Arming |
5-8 | Set and turn single | |
III.B1 | 1-2 | Top couple lead up a double, bottom couple down a double, middle men/middle women out a double |
3-4 | Turn alone and lead back | |
5-8 | Circle eight half | |
III.B2 | 1-8 | That again: lead away, back, circle eight half |
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=BroomTheBonnyBonnyBroom
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2020 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.