Virginia Reel

Virginia Reel ~ Hillgrove Virginia Reel Roger of Coverly - Thompson Roger of Coverly - Playford Sir Roger de Coverley ~ Platt Sir Roger de Coverley ~ Wilson The Haymakers ~ RSCDS

Virginia Reel is an American Country Dance. It was published by Thompson in about 1770 in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol II. It is a proper Longways as many as will dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 23451. The minor set lasts 76 bars.

The Virginia Reel is a North American variant of Sir Roger de Coverley, a dance which appeared about 1770.

The first use of the name Virginia Reel that I'm aware of is in Hillgrove's The Scholar's Companion and Ball-Room Vade-Mecum from 1857

Many variants (see Witches' Reel), but I grew up with this one.

This version looks surprisingly like the dance Trenchmore from Playford, 1652

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.

1-4Long lines forward and back
5-8Partner two hand turn
9-12Do-si-do partner
13-16See-saw partner
17-201st couple join hands, sashay down 4 steps and back
21-241s right hand turn partner once and a half
25-281s left hand turn 2s once
29-321s right hand turn partner once
33-361s left hand turn 3s once
37-401s right hand turn partner once
41-441s left hand turn 4s once
45-481s right hand turn partner once
49-521s left hand turn 5s once
53-541s right hand turn partner half (to proper)
55-601s join hands sashay up the set
61-681s cast to bottom, others follow
69-761s make an arch, other couples join handy hands, skip up to progressed places

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=VirginiaReel

< Prev Top Next >

The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. I do not have a date for the interpretation, so it may be under copyright. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2019 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021-2025 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.