Ratcliff Cross

Ratcliff Cross 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 Bernard Bentley in 1977 and published in The Fallibroome Collection, Vol. 5. 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 (John Young) writes:

Note: Each Strain twice.

First Man turns the 2d Wo. with his Right-hand, and his Partner with his Left First Wo. turns the 2d Man with her Right-hand, and her Partner with her Left First Cu. cross over and half Figure at top with the 2d Cu Then whole Figre at bottom with the 3d Cu First Man turns the 3d Wo and his Partner the 2d Man then they turn one another The first Wo. turns the 3d Man with her Right-hand, and her Partner turns the 2d Wo. and then turns his Partner The first Man crosses over on the out Side of the 3d Wo. and the first Wo. cross over on the out Side of the 2d Man, and both cast quite round into the 2d Cu. Place. Then the 1st Man cross on the out Side of the 2d Wo. and the 1st Wo.. cross over on the out Side the 3d Man. and then both cast quite round into the 2d Cu. Place, and turns his Partner

In A2, Bentley has switched right to left and left to right in the turns.

In D2, Bentley has the 1s crossing right, Broadbridge suggests they should cross left.

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 dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), 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=RatcliffCross

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1977 by Bernard Bentley. 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.