Charrington Toby


Jump to music »

History

Written by the men’s team of Marlboro Morris and Sword, in the van on their way to Toronto ale with 5 dancers, needing a dance for 5. Named for the bottle caps of the beer they were drinking, which they used to design the figures. New starting location added somewhere around 2019-2020 (it was in evidence in a 2020 Virtuale video).

Videos

Distanced Charrington Toby, at Marlboro College (2020)

Structure

Main Idea: Chorus is “heading up”; Figures are V, X, O with caper progression.

Starts in a line of 5 across, in the back of the dance space. Starts right foot.

Chorus: 4 double steps, 2 closed side steps, 2-3 swingbacks, step and jump

V Figure: 4 Double steps, Lichfield caper, galley right

On first double step, center moves up 2 “levels” to form the tip of the V. Middles (positions 2 and 4) move up one “level”, and ends (1 and 5) stay where they are.

Chorus: Use first double step to move back to single line in the middle “level” (where 2 and 4 were during the V).

X Figure: 4 Double steps, Scissor caper, galley right

On first double step, ends move up to front level, middles move down to back level to form X.

Chorus

O Figure: 4 Double steps, Castlering caper, 4 plain capers

On first double step, center person moves back, middles move up, ends stay, all turn in to form an X (middles turn in)

On plain capers, turn out over R shoulder

Note

Each person’s locations for the figures rotates in this order: Front - Middle - Back. In other words, your next figure will be one “level” back from the current figure.

Music


Lead in: Once to yourself
Sequence: A 𝄆 AB 𝄇
Song: Twin Sisters (in the key of G)

Figures for For Five

  • V
  • X
  • circle