Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Over The Water To Charlie

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

OVER THE WATER TO CHARLIE (New Way) (J8x32) 3C (4C set) RSCDS Book 34

1- 8 1s set, cast 1 place, dance down between 3s and cast back to 2nd place
9-16 2s+1s dance RH across ½ way, cross RH, dance LH across ½ way, 2s cross back LH as 1s turn LH to face 1st corners
17-24 1s set to and turn 1st corners 2H, set and turn 2nd corners 2H
25-32 1s dance reels of 3 on opposite sides giving LSh to 1st corners and cross RH to own sides

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)


Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams


Dance Instruction Videos

Over The Water To Charlie - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

The title of this dance, Over The Water To Charlie, is shared with Over The Water To Charlie - Song, the old Scottish song written around the 18th century and sung to the tune by the same name.

Chorus
We'll over the water, and over the sea,
We'll over the water to Charlie;
Come weel, come woe, we'll gather and go,
And live and die wi' Charlie.

Over The Water To Charlie is a song of longing for the lost Prince, Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart), after the 1745 Jacobite Rising.

The original manuscript O'er The Watter To Charly, in The Register Of Dances at Castle Menzies (pronounced "ming-iss"), was published in 1749 and is now kept in the A K Bell Library in Perth, Scotland.

Over The Water To Charlie Song - Information Video

There is also a Scottish highland dance Over The Water To Charlie - Highland Dance Video sometimes danced today at Highland games around the world, as part of Scottish National dances repertoire.

Over The Water To Charlie
Over The Water To Charlie, From Glen Collection Of Printed Music, Davidson's Musical Miracles, Printed Music, c. 1860


Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Over The Water To Charlie article on Wikisource.
Image copyright https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/91334284 under this Creative Commons Licence 4.0.

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