Ashra Autad
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Ashra Autad An eighty-eight bar demonstration Reel for four men and six ladies in a triangular set, as in figure 1 below. The men are numbered from 1 to 4 and the ladies from 6 to 10. Devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 15.1- 8 The four men set for eight bars; whilst the ladies dance six hands round to the left in a circle and back to the right.
9-12 First and second men dance half rights and lefts with fifth and tenth ladies; to commence first man gives his right hand to tenth lady and second man gives his right hand to fifth lady.
13-16 Fifth and tenth ladies dance half a ladies' chain with first and second men. (Effectively first and second men have now changed places).
17-20 First and fourth men dance half a reel of four on the side with fifth and sixth ladies. Meanwhile second man dances half a reel of three with seventh and tenth ladies, passing seventh lady by the left to start; at the same time third man dances right hands across in a wheel with eighth and ninth ladies.
21-24 Third and fourth men dance half a reel of four on the side with seventh and ninth ladies. Meanwhile second man dances half a reel of three with sixth and eighth ladies, passing eighth lady by the left to commence; at the same time first man dances right hands across in a wheel with fifth and tenth ladies. (Positions are now as in figure 2 above).
25-48 Repeat bars 1-24 from new positions. Positions are now as in figure 3 below.
49-72 Repeat bars 1-24 from new positions. Positions are now as in figure 4 below.
73-88 Repeat bars 1-16 from new positions. Positions are now as in figure 5 below. The ladies are now all back in their original places, first man is back in the centre and the other three men are again at the corners of the triangle, one place anticlockwise from their original positions. Repeating the first 72 bars twice more before the last 16 would return everybody to their original places, but this might not be completely enthralling to the average audience.
Recommended tune: Ythan Bar Editor's note to the 2025 edition In order to bring everyone back to their original places, one would have to dance the full 88 bars three times through, not only the first 72 bars. This would mean that bars 1-16 would be danced six times through in total, which would be even less enthralling to the average audience than John presumes...
(Dance crib reproduced from The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell)
Published in The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 15, by John W Mitchell, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell. Instructions reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0).
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