Azizi asked if The Grand Old Duke Of York was a jump rope {skipping} rhyme, and, perhaps, also a ball bouncing rhyme. Or was it a handclap rhyme?
It is none of these. It is a kid's dance in which the boys form a line and the girls form another line facing each other. To the music the first couple join hands and skip down between the two lines. At the bottom, they turn and skip back up to the top. There they part and the boy turns left and skips down the outside of the line of boys while the girl turns right and skips down the girls' line. The boys then follow the first boy and the girls follow the first girl. At the bottom the first boy and girl face each other and make an arch with both arms held high. As each of the boys and girls meet, they link hands, pass through the arch and reform the two lines, with a new first couple. The original couple are now at the other end of the lines and the new first couple begin all over again.