Berks of Abergelde

Berks of Abergelde is an English Country Dance. It was published by Wright in 1740 in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, Vol. 1, London. It was interpreted by Bob Lilley in about 2023 and published in Bob Lilley's Nightmarish (and Other) Dances. Originally a Triple Minor this version is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. Someone thought this dance was Intermediate.

Wright writes:

Each Strain twice.
The two 1st Cu. take Hands & go all 4 quite round, Then the 1st Man goes back to back with the 2d Wo. Then all 4 Hands quite round back again, the 1st Wo. & 2d Man goes back to back, the 1st Cu. take both hands & go half round & back again, then Right & Left, & lead down the 3d. Cu. then thro' the 1st Cu.

Lilley does not date his interpretations.

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), circle, cast, lead, rights and lefts, lead and cast, back to back (and probably others).

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=BerksOfAbergelde

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © ~2023 by Bob Lilley. 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
Creative Commons License 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.