Charming Maid
Charming Maid is an English Country Dance. It was published by Playford (John Young) (website) in 1718 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second, 3rd ed., London. It was interpreted by Colin Hume (website) in 2022 and published in Colin Hume's Website. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper 3 Couple Longways dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 231. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Playford writes:
Note: The first Strain is to be play'd twice, and the last but once.
The 1st Cu. cross over below the 2d Cu. and Figure thro' the 3d Cu. The 2d Cu. do the same The 1st Cu. go between the 2d and 3d We. then cast off, and Figure thro' the 2d and 3d Men, then the 1st Man fall back with the 2d Cu. and 1st Wo. fall back with the 3d Cu. and cast off, then first Wo. cast up, and both turn in the 2d Cu. Place
The tune was published by Playford with the dance, and the music was synthesized by Colin Hume.
The animation plays at 103 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 (no music plays during this slow set). 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.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
The dance contains the following figures: cast, lead, figure eight, cross go below (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=CharmingMaid
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2022 by Colin Hume. 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.