A Young Virgin of 15 Years
A Young Virgin of 15 Years 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. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. The tune is a jig.
The Neals write:
each strain twice
1d. & 2th. men take both hands wye. their partner's and back to back till in their own places:
1d. & 2th. cu: right & left quite round:
1d. cu: take both hands & dance down & up betweene ye cuples, & cast off into 2th. cu: place:
1d. cu: dance round to one another in 2th. cu: place & turn both hands
The tune appears to match Playford's Wou'd You Have a Young Virgin (of 1710) but the figures are different.
I'm not sure I agree with J&F's interpretation of 1d. cu: dance round to one another as a gypsy. The Neals do not say "dance round one another" but "dance round to one another" which makes it sound more like some sort of setting. Perhaps a late example of "backs and faces" where the dancers turned round to display themselves from all sides.
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), gypsy, cast, lead, poussette, rights and lefts, lead and cast
Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete, also it only shows the figures used by the interpreter, not necessarily the deviser.
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 transience of my youtube URLs. 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=AYoungVirginOf15Years
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 © 2021-2026 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.