Talk:Virginia reel (dance)

In the first paragraph it says: "The dance was first published in England in 1685 by Sir Roger De Coverly." Then later in the same paragraph it says "The dance was first published in England in 1865."

Was it 1685 or 1865??

Roger de Coverly
Current article says "[The dance] was first published in England (1865) by Sir Roger De Coverly." and "Described below is Sir Roger De Coverly's version of the Virginia Reel".

I think there's some confusion here -- "Roger of Coverly" is the name of a dance published in the 9th edition of The Dancing Master (1695). I think the tune may have been published earlier than that. I don't know the exact origin and evolution of the Roger de Coverly dance and tune -- there are lots of stories that I read, but I suspect many of them are apocryphal. So I'm removing all references to him as an actual dance publisher from this article.

-Insouciance 08:31, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * My current understanding is that the current Virginia Reel dance was originally called (or developed from) the original dance and tune called (Sir) Roger de/of Coverl(e)y. This seems to have appeared in England during the 17th century and remained popular through to at least the 19th century (from Dicken's [[A Christmas Carol]: "... the great effect of the evening came after the Roast and Boiled, when the fiddler ... struck up “Sir Roger de Coverley.” Then old Fezziwig stood out to dance with Mrs. Fezziwig." (this scene is from Scrooge's youth)).


 * However I'm not in the position to say this with any authority. With the amount of dubious information out there I suggest that people are careful about citing their sources on this matter.


 * -Insouciance 11:27, 18 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I've put what I know (or think I know) into the Roger de Coverley article. -Insouciance 13:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

Copying without sourcing
Whoever wrote this article seems to have copied much of it from this website: [link]http://homepages.apci.net/~drdeyne/dances/vareel.htm[/link] Or one just like it-- there are many.

Barn dance vs ceilidh dance?
I came to this page from Google seeking information about the Virginia Reel cèilidh dance... this page seems to be only about the barn dance. I was initially really confused because the dances are similar, but the key difference being that the barn dance seems to actually include a reel, whereas the cèilidh dance is called a reel because of the timing of the music, and actually doesn't include a reel figure. I was then able to find the information relevant to me elsewhere on the internet. I am the sort of person who when I find something "missing" from Wikipedia that I'm passionate about, would like to add it in, so I'll give it my best shot especially now that a dance section of Wikipedia exists. However it's my first try at anything like this so please bear with me.

I thought the most sensible and least confusing approach would be to create a new page for the cèilidh dance called "Virginia reel (Scottish country dance)" however it stands to reason that this existing article ought to then be renamed to "Virginia reel (American country dance)" for the sake of consistency. I have absolutely no idea how to rename a page and it wasn't intuitive, so with the fear of breaking it completely, thought I'd post here in case someone more capable can do it. If I manage successfully to create a new page for the Scottish dance, I'll attempt to add it on here as a "see also". Even if I don't succeed in creating a new page for the cèilidh dance, I still think giving more information in the title about the nature of the existing page would save others like me a similar confusion and some head scratching of "I'm sure this isn't how I did the dance last time!" and improve the Wiki generally.

If it goes well I might try to add a few more common Scottish dances to the wiki as it does seem somewhat lacking. I can read the cribs on the online Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary but someone new to it, e.g. a person having just attended their first cèilidh and planning their second and doing a bit of preparation beforehand, might find the cribs and figures to be like alien hieroglyphs, I know I did when I was a beginner! So Wikipedia could be one of the first places they will look to try to learn some dances, and I'd like to have a go at relaying them in a more accessible and less technical style than in the SCD Dictionary. Anyway thank you for your time :) NekoEmmi (talk) 12:35, 9 December 2014 (UTC)