Maid of the Oaks is an American Country Dance. It was published by John Griffiths in 1788 in A Collection of the Newest and Most Fashionable Country Dances and Cotillions, Providence, RI. It was interpreted by James E. Morrison in 1976 and published in Twenty Four Early American Country Dances, Cotillions & Reels for the Year 1976. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars.
Griffiths writes:
First Lady sets to the second Gent, — turns the third, and goes to her former place — the first Gent. sets to the second lady, turns the third, and remains between the third couple, and his partner between the second Co. — balance all six — set — turn your Partner with your right Hand, and turn until you are between the second and third Ladies — balance again — set, and return to your Places.
Morrison says the 1s should turn half to become proper at the end. I've taken the liberty of changing that to once and a half, since we've got 4 bars to do the turn.
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), set (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=MaidOfTheOaks
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1976 by James E. Morrison. 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 © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.