Table of Contents

0-9

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
5 for the Symbols at Your Door		Fried de Metz Herman 1994		Duple Minor

A

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Abernethy House		Fried de Metz Herman 1979		4 Couple Longways
Alex and Charles		Victor Skowronski 2009	Odd Sundays Garage Band	Duple Minor
Anton's Surprise		Pat Shaw 1964		Duple Minor
Autumn in Appin		John Drewry 1982		4 Couple Longways permutation: 2413

B

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Bittersweet		Victor Skowronski 2003		Duple Minor
Bohemian Reflections		Holgar Schuckelt 2017		Triple Minor
The Bright Side		Fried de Metz Herman 2001		Duple Minor

C

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Circassian Circle Circassian Circle ~ La Daphne (Chivers) G.M.S. Chivers 1822 George Williams 2024 Duple Minor Circassian Circle ~ RSCDS G.M.S. Chivers 1822 RSCDS 1924 Colin Hume Duple Minor
Clutha ~ RSCDS		Kate Hughes ~1867 RSCDS 1983		Square
Come under my Plaidie		Anonymous 1981		Duple Minor
The Congresswoman		Jenna Simpson 2009		4 Couple Longways permutation: 2413
Cool Breezes		Victor Skowronski 2007		Duple Minor

E

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Elizabeth		Colin Hume 1991	Masquerade	Duple Minor

F

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The First Lady		Fried de Metz Herman 1991		Duple Minor
Friends: The Moth, The Bat, and the Pine Tree		Margaret deNeergaard 2025		Triple Minor

G

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Gloria's Wee Jig		Bob McMurtry 2002		Duple Minor
The Golden Dogwood		Susan Tumlin 2024		Square

H

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Harvest Round		Fried de Metz Herman 1998		Duple Minor
Heartland		Orly Krasner 1999		Duple Minor
Hidden by Light		Brooke Friendly/Chris Sackett 2009		Square

I

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Immigrant Lass		J Morton Jay ~1996		4 Couple Longways permutation: 2341
In the Sere		Fried de Metz Herman 2007		Duple Minor

J

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Joseph's Idyll		Victor Skowronski 2003		Duple Minor

K

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Kendall's Hornpipe		RSCDS 1960		Duple Minor

L

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Laura's Waltz		David Macemon & Cynthia Stenger ~2003	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
Longevity		Orly Krasner 2000	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor

M

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Mrs. Stewart's Jig		Frans Ligtmans 1986		Triple Minor

N

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
New Abbey		Roy Goldring 1996		Duple Minor

O

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Orpington Caledonians		John Brenchley 1987		Triple Minor
Our Brief Encounters		Loretta Holz 2006		3 Couple Longways permutation: 231

P

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Paisley Weavers		Derek Haynes 2008		3 Couple Longways permutation: 231
Parson's Farewell ~ Hume		John Playford 1651 Colin Hume 2020	Bare Necessities	Facing Couples Becket
Portincaple Oak		Anne Thorn 2011		Square

Q

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Quadrille Country Dance		Kate Hughes ~1867 RSCDS ~1977		Duple Minor

R

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Robertson Rant		Mrs. Douglas Winchester 1949		Square

S

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Safe Haven		Orly Krasner 2002	Bare Necessities	Duple Minor
The Sea Captain's Wife		Judee Schumacher 2018		Duple Minor
Summer Circle		Fried de Metz Herman 2000		Becket

T

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
The Tempest The Tempest ~ Howe Howe 1858 George Williams 2024 Tempest The Tempest ~ Washburn Washburn 1855 George Williams 2024 Tempest The Tempest ~ Washburn/Modern Washburn 1855 Tempest
Through the Looking Glass		Chris Sackett/Brooke Friendly 2006		Square
A Trip to Provence		Susan Kevra 2015	Dave Bartley, Ruthie Dornfeld and Terry Wergeland	Duple Minor

U

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Unionville Square		Gary Roodman 2005		Square

Y

Dance Title	Type	Deviser (or Editor/Publisher), Date, Interpreter	Music Performers	Formation
Ye Ken It Well		Bob McMurtry 2002		Triple Minor

Warning: The figures for each dance is generated programmatically by regular expression matching and may be in error. Also, for old dances, they reflect the figures used by the interpreter which may not match those of the deviser.

Ladies' Chain

Also known as: Chaîne des dames, Ladies' Change.

Bars: 8.

In the original version of the ladies' chain, two couples are facing each other (lady on man's right). The ladies move into the center and take right hands briefly as they pass by right. Meanwhile the men cast into a small counter clockwise circle. After two bars the ladies are approximately where the opposite man started, while the men are approximately where their partners started, they take left hands on the side lines and turn around counter-clockwise for 2 more bars until the ladies are again facing in. Then the process repeats, the men doing essentially the same thing (except with their partners now), and the ladies going back to their original sides and turning their original partners.

Variants

In a Grand Ladies' Chain then all the ladies in the set will form a right hand star, turn it half, and then turn the opposite man left, and cross back the same way.

In a Gents' chain, two men will cross by the left hand and then turn right half with the opposite lady, and cross back the same way.

In Square and Contra dancing, the figure has mutated so that it ends with a courtesy turn. Also, somewhere between 1960 and 1980 the term "ladies' chain" in these two styles, came to mean what originally would have been half a ladies' chain. (This seems to have happened first in Square dancing, and later in Contra).

History

Nicholas Dukes, 1752, does not describe a ladies' chain.

The first use I know of a Ladies' Chain occurs in Ignatius Sancho's Cotillions &c. published 1776, in the dance L'Bon Ton. He uses neither the French nor the English name for the figure, but simply describes it:

The top and bottom Ladies give Right hands in the Centre and turn contrary Partners with the Left hand give Right hands again in the Centre and turn their own Partners with the Left hand

Wilson does not mention Ladies' Chain as a Country Dance figure in his Complete System of English Country Dancing from 1815, but he does in his book on Quadrilles from 1822:

8.—CHAINE DES DAMES ENTIERE Les deux Dames de vis à vis se donnent la main droite, tournent les Cavaliers de vis à vis avec la gauche, se donnent la droite au milieu, et tournent leurs Cavaliers avec la gauche aux places.

8.—LADIES' CHAIN. The two opposite Ladies give right hands, swing the opposite Gentlemen with the left, join right hands in the centre, and swing their partners with left to places.

Chivers, in his The Modern Dancing Master, 1822, uses Ladies' Chain in his Circassian Circle dances (page 184), and I think that's the first use in something like a Country Dance.

In the US, Schell's book Prompting: How to Do It, Boston, 1890, defines:

Ladies' Chain.—(8.) Danced by opposite couples at the same time. Opposite ladies cross, give right hand, in passing, join left hand with opposite gen, and turn half round. Repeat, swinging partners with left hand to place.

Henry Ford's (Benjamin Lovett's) Good Morning was still using this version in 1925:

(Ladies cross to opposite sides, giving right hands as they pass each other. Give left hands to opposite gentlemen and turn half around. Give right hands back, left hands to partners, and turn to places.)

See Also

• Ladies' Chain (Courtesy Turn)

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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.