Ladies' Chain
Also known as: Chaîne des dames.
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.)
Some dances which (probably) use this figure
- Dances for which I have animations
- Dances in (R)SCDS Books
Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.
See Also
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