Richmond Ball

Richmond Ball is an English Country Dance. It was published by John & William Neal in 1726 in A Choice Collection of Country Dances. It was interpreted by Rich Jackson & George Fogg in 1990. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

The Neals write:

First cu:sett and cast off, and lead through 3d cu:and cast up into 2d cu: place:
sett again and cast off below 3d cu:lead to ye top through ye cus: and cast off into 2d cu: place:
1st ma: turn 2d wo: wth his right hand once, and his par:ye same with 2d ma:
all 4 lead up a breast (ye 1st cu:in the middle) moving backwards and forwards, and 1st cu:cast off into 2d cu: place:

In 1695 Playford published a dance with this name and music but different figures.

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), set, cast, lead, lead and cast (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=RichmondBall

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1990 by Rich Jackson & George Fogg. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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.