The Ainster Laddie

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

The Ainster Laddie (J8x40) 3C (4C set) Lewis N Derrick 1991

1-8 The 1st couple set and, taking nearer hands, dance down two places, divide below the 3rd couple and cast up one place on own sides, dancing in to end facing first corners
9-16 The 1st couple set to corners, set to one another across the dance, set to second corners, set advancing to one another up and down the dance to end back-to-back in middle facing second corners again
17-24 Passing right shoulders with corners to begin, the 1st couple dance a reel of four with their second corners, on the last two bars the 1st couple turn by the left hand to face their partner's first corner
25-32 Passing right shoulders with partner's first corners to begin, the 1st couple dance a reel of four with their first corners, on the last two bars the 1st couple turn by the left hand so that the man is facing down and the woman up
33-36 The 1st woman with the 2nd couple and the 1st man with the 3rd couple dances right hands across; the 1st couple pass right shoulders on bar 36
37-40 The 1st man with the 2nd couple, likewise the 1st woman with the 3rd couple, dance left hands across; all end on sidelines in order 213

Repeat having passed a couple

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick 2020)

Dance Information

This jig, The Ainster Laddie, was devised by Lewis Derrick to Commemorate Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), the first Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland at the Disruption in 1843, who was born in Anstruther, Fife, and attended St Andrews University to study mathematics at the age of just 11 years.

Suggested tune: The Blackthorn Stick.

Devised 1991, first published electronically 2020.

(Dance information from The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets #15, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)

Thomas Chalmers FRSE (1780-1847), was a Scottish minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nineteenth-century churchman".

Chalmers was born at Anstruther (Pronounced by locals "Ainster") in Fife, the son of Elizabeth Hall and John Chalmers.

He served as Vice-president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh from 1835 to 1842 and the New Zealand town of Port Chalmers was named after T. Chalmers.

Rev Thomas Chalmers By Thomas Duncan, 1840

Published in The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets, Collection 2, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick.
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Thomas Chalmers article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Stephencdickson, Creative Commons Licence 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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