The Charmer - Walsh
The Charmer - Walsh is an English Country Dance. It was published by Walsh in 1717 in Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1717, London. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2024. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
First published by Walsh in 1717, John Young (Playford) in 1718, Walsh again in 1719.
Walsh writes:
Note: Each Strain is to be play'd twice over.
The 1st Cu. take Hands, go thro' the 2d, and set to the 3d Cu. then turn about to the 2d Cu. and all four take Hands abreast, lead up and the 1st Cu. cast off The 2d Cu. do the same with the 3d and the 1st Cu. The 1st Cu. figure thro' the 2d Cu. all four take Hands and turn quite round The 1st Cu. cross quite round the 2d Cu. clap Hands and cast off into the 2d Cu. Place
The music consists of two 8 bar strains.
The 1st Cu. cross quite round the 2d Cu. is not a figure I'm familiar with. It starts with the 1s improper above, and since it is followed by the 1s casting down to progress they must end proper. Now it isn't a half figure eight, because presumably Walsh would just have said so (as he did just before) So I'm guessing, 1s cross, go below 2s and then lead up the middle.
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 dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
| A1 | 1-2 | 1s lead below 2s (who stand) |
| 3-4 | 1s set to the next 2s below | |
| 5-6 | 1s turn, form a line of four with their original 2s and lead up | |
| 7-8 | 1s cast down | |
| A2 | 1-2 | 2s lead below 1s (who stand) |
| 3-4 | 2s set to the next 1s below | |
| 5-6 | 2s turn, form a line of four with their original 1s and lead up | |
| 7-8 | 2s cast down | |
| B1 | 1-4 | 1s half figure eight down through the 2s |
| 5-8 | Circle left four | |
| B2 | 1-6 | 1s cross, go below 2s, and lead up the middle |
| 7-8 | 1s cast down as 2s lead up |
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=TheCharmer-Walsh
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 2024 by George Williams. And is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 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.