Virginia Reel
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, London. 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.
| 1-4 | Long lines forward and back |
| 5-8 | Partner two hand turn |
| 9-12 | Do-si-do partner |
| 13-16 | See-saw partner |
| 17-20 | 1st couple join hands, sashay down 4 steps and back |
| 21-24 | 1s right hand turn partner once and a half |
| 25-28 | 1s left hand turn 2s once |
| 29-32 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 33-36 | 1s left hand turn 3s once |
| 37-40 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 41-44 | 1s left hand turn 4s once |
| 45-48 | 1s right hand turn partner once |
| 49-52 | 1s left hand turn 5s once |
| 53-54 | 1s right hand turn partner half (to proper) |
| 55-60 | 1s join hands sashay up the set |
| 61-68 | 1s cast to bottom, others follow |
| 69-76 | 1s 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
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 © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.