Devil's Dream

Devil's Dream is an American Country Dance. It was published by Saltator in 1802 in A Treatise on Dancing, Boston. It was interpreted by Ralph Page in 1967. Found in Cracking Chestnuts. It is an improper duple minor longways dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

Saltator writes:

Three ladies pass round their partners, then their parters round them, first couple down the middle, back brisse, right and left

I think "brise" must mean cast.

Howe writes

Form in sets of six couples. First couple down the outside and back (foot couple up the centre at the same time), first couple down the centre, back, cast off, (foot couple up the outside and back at the same time), ladies chain first four, right and left.

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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, lead, ladies chain (courtesy turn), right and left through (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=DevilsDream

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1967 by Ralph Page. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2021 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.