Old Dan Tucker ~ Burchenal

Tucker Old Dan Tucker ~ Burchenal Old Dan Tucker ~ Link

Old Dan Tucker ~ Burchenal is an American Country Dance. It was devised by Charles Link in 1893 and published in Unique Dancing Call Book, Rochester, NY. It was interpreted by Emma Burchenal in 1918 and published in American Country Dances. It is a Custom dance. In this dance the men are permuted by: 2344 and the women by: 3412. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Link writes in 1893:

Join hands & circle to the left 4 Circle to the right 4 All Balance 4 Swing 4 Tucker balance 4 Swing 4 Grand right and Left 8 Promenade all 8

Burchenal writes:

Formation: Any number of couples join hands in a circle, with one odd man (Dan Tucker) in the centre.
(1-2) Balance All (to Tucker)
(3-8) Turn left and Right (or "Allemande Left")
(9-16) Right Hand to Partner, and Grand Right and Left (Tucker joins in)
(1-8) Promenade All
(9-12) Forward and Back (13-16) All Hands Round

Burchenal's instructions have dancers turning their corners by the right and their partners left and then starting a grand right and left with partner's right. This seems awkward, and it certainly isn't what square dances do today. But she also says "Allemande left" as an alternative to this manouver, so I'm going to use that instead.

According to Burchenal, the grand right and left goes on until the caller says stop, at which point all the men scramble to find the nearest partner and promenade to her home. Tucker joins in the grand right and left. I'm not sure how that works for the man behind where tucker joins in, it seems to me that he is out the moment tucker moves in ahead of him.

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.

1-4Balance in and out to Tucker
5-8Corner allemande left
9-16Grand Right and Left (including Tucker)
17-24Promenade to lady's home
25-28Forward and back
29-32Circle left

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=OldDanTucker-Burchenal

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The dance is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. 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
Creative Commons License 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.