Mad Robin ~ Sharp
Mad Robin ~ Sharp is an English Country Dance. It was published by Henry Playford (website) in 1695 in The Dancing Master, 9th ed.. It was interpreted by Cecil Sharp (website) in 1922 and published in The Country Dance Book (Part 6). It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. It is in the key: B flat major.
The 1. man turn the 2. wo. with his right-hand, and his own Partner with his left, and cast off below the 2. man The 1. wo. turn her Partner with her right hand, and the 2. man with her left, and cast off below the 2. wo. The 1. wo. cast up above the 2. man and slip down the middle, the 1. man go up between, and then cast off below and turn hands The 1. wo. go up the middle and cast off below the 2. wo. the 1. man cast up above the 2. man, and slip down, the middle and turn his Partner
Note that Sharp has reversed the order of the B section: Playford has M1 go up the middle in B1 and W1 in B2, but Sharp has W1 in B1 and M1 in B2.
This dance is the source for the Mad Robin figure. Note that (as interpreted by Sharp and presented here) the figure is slighlty different from the modern incarnation: the couple do not face each other.
The first use I can find of the modern figure occurs in "The Saucy Sailor" from Maggot Pie, but they don't call it a Mad Robin there (they don't call it anything). The first use of the figure and name seems to come from Jim Kitch in his dance "The Lover's Knot" (published in 1993).
The tune, also called Mad Robin, was published by Playford in 1686 (without dance instructions), then republished with the dance in 1695. It was performed by Bare Necessities (Earl Gaddis, Mary Lea, Peter Barnes, and Jacqueline Schwab) on the album A Playford Ball. The music is used with permission from the Country Dance Society, Boston Centre, Inc.
The animation plays at 109 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.
| A1 | 1-3 | M1 turn W2 right |
| 4-6 | M1 turn W1 left | |
| 7-8 | M1 cast down, M2 moves up | |
| A2 | 1-3 | W1 turn M1 left |
| 4-6 | W1 turn M2 right | |
| 7-8 | W1 cast down, W2 moves up | |
| B1 | 1-4 | W1 move up center, cast down, as M1 casts up outside, down the center |
| 5-8 | 1s two hand turn | |
| B2 | 1-4 | M1 move up center, cast down, as W1 cast up outside, down the center |
| 5-8 | Again: 1s two hand turn |
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 transience of my youtube URLs. 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=MadRobin-Sharp
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.
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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.