Virginia Reel ~ Hillgrove
Virginia Reel ~ Hillgrove 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 was interpreted by Thomas Hillgrove in 1857 and published in The Scholar's Companion and Ball-Room Vade-Mecum. Originally a 5 Couple Longways this version is a proper Longways as many as will dance. In this dance the couples are permuted by: 23451. The minor set lasts 102 bars.
This evolved out of the English dance Sir Roger de Coverly. Thomas Hillgrove (a dancing instructor from New York) in The Scholar's Companion & Ball-Room Vade-Mecum is the first (that I've found) to call it The Virginia Reel.
Hillgrove's dance is almost the same as the original in the behavior of long first and second corners (Hillgrove starts with 2nd corners, Wilson with 1st), but diverges once the 1s act together as a couple.
The dance is a longways set for a variable number of couples, usually between 4 and 8.
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.
| 1-4 | Long 2nd corners advance, honour, retreat |
| 5-8 | Long 1st corners advance, honour, retreat |
| 9-12 | Long 2nd corners advance, right hand turn, retreat |
| 13-16 | Long 1st corners advance, right hand turn, retreat |
| 17-20 | 2nd corners left hand turn |
| 21-24 | 1st corners left hand turn |
| 25-28 | 2nd corners two hand turn |
| 29-32 | 1st corners two hand turn |
| 33-36 | 2nd corners dos-à-dos |
| 37-40 | 1st corners dos-à-dos |
| 41-44 | 1s right hand turn partner once and a half |
| 45-48 | 1s left hand turn 2s once |
| 49-52 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 53-56 | 1s left hand turn 3s once |
| 57-60 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 61-64 | 1s left hand turn 4s once |
| 65-68 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 69-72 | 1s left hand turn 5s once |
| 73-74 | 1s right hand turn partner half (to proper) |
| 75-80 | 1s join hands sashay up the set |
| 81-88 | 1s cast to bottom, other couples follow |
| 89-96 | 1s lead to top, other couples follow |
| 97-102 | 1s sashay down to the bottom |
| 103-104 | Honor partner |
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-Hillgrove
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. 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
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.