Belgia Retriev'd
Belgia Retriev'd is an English Country Dance. It was published by John Young (Playford family) (website) in 1710 in The Dancing Master, Vol. the Second. It was interpreted by Tom Cook in 1979 and published in Again Let's Be Merry. It is a proper Duple Minor dance. The minor set lasts 32 bars. The tune is in triple time.
Also published in Walsh's The New Country Dancing Master, The 2nd Book. Not sure which was published first. The figure appeared earlier in Well Hall.
John Young writes:
Honour to the Presence, then to your own Woman. Lead up all forward and back. That again.
The first Man turns his own Wo. once and an half, and goes into the second's Place, and cross over; then the 2d Man and Wo. being in the first Couples Place do the same Then the first Man and 2d Wo. change Places, and the first Wo. and 2d Man do the same Then Hands all and go half round into your own Places and turn single; then the first Wo. and 2d Man cross over, and the first Man and 2d Wo. do the same; then all take Hands and go half round into their own Place; then first Couple casts off into the second's Place; and so on to the end.
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.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), turn single, circle, cast, lead, figure eight, hole in the wall, (and probably others).
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=BelgiaRetrievd
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1979 by Tom Cook. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2025 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.