Boxing The Compass
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
BOXING THE COMPASS (M-(S2x32+R2x32)) 4C set Malcolm Brown, 2006Strathspey
1- 8 All set, 1s+2s also 3s+4s dance ½ RH across, all set, 1s+4s dance ½ RH across. Couples in 1st/3rd place face down, 2nd/4th place face up
9-16 All petronella turn into lines across and set; all dance ½ reels of 4 across
17-24 All petronella turn to sidelines and set; all dance ½ reels of 4 on sides. All face in (3L and 2M pull back RSh)
25-32 End couples (3s and 2s) cross RH. All circle 8H ¾ round to Left. Finish in lines across. 2413
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Dance Notes
This dance is intended for demonstration purposes by a single set. After the first repeat, the set is rotated by 90°, after the second it is rotated by 180° and at the end the set it is in its original format; for variety, it is danced as a medley, two repeats in strathspey tempo followed by two in reel tempo.Note that, if danced in a social context, the spacing of the lines of sets must be appreciably greater than normal to accommodate the rotated set in the second and fourth repeats.
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Boxing The Compass - YouTube Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
This medley, Boxing The Compass, is named after the mariner's exercise called boxing the compass, where all thirty-two points of the compass are named in clockwise order.Direction:
North
North By East
North-Northeast
Northeast By North
Northeast
Northeast By East
East-Northeast
East By North
East
East By South
East-Southeast
Southeast By East
Southeast
Southeast By South
South-Southeast
South By East
South
South By West
South-Southwest
Southwest By South
Southwest
Southwest By West
West-Southwest
West By South
West
West By North
West-Northwest
Northwest By West
Northwest
Northwest By North
North-Northwest
North By West
Portable Equatorial Sundial And Compass, 1748
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Points Of The Compass article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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