The Brownie Of Blednoch
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
THE BROWNIE OF BLEDNOCH (R8x32) 3C (4C set) Susie Langdon Kass Let's All Dance1- 8 1s set twice, 1s facing 2s set twice to each other on sides
9-16 1s+2s+3s dance RSh reels of 3 on sides
17-24 1s lead down the middle and back
25-32 1s+2s dance Allemande
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
The Brownie Of Blednoch - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The title of this dance, The Brownie Of Blednoch, comes from the The Brownie Of Blednoch - Poem written by William Nicholson in 1828.Though the "Brownie o Blednach" lang be gane,
The mark o his feet's left on mony a stane;
And mony a wife and mony a wean
Tell the feats o Aiken-drum.
This easy dance was devised by Susie Langden Kass, a SCD deviser from Los Angeles, USA. The title comes from the eponymous poem by the Scottish poet William Nicholson (17th - 18th century), written in broad Galloway Scots. Blednoch is a place in Galloway (SW Scotland) now mainly known for its whisky distillery.
A "brownie" was a weird wanderer, a sort of domestic spirit of a familiar and useful kind referred to in SW Scotland in the 17th century and earlier. Grotesque in figure, small in stature but very strong, his presence and help were cheerfully accepted in the farm or household where he chose to serve. He would always work in the dark and would undertake any heavy work.
(Dance information by Sir Christopher MacRae, KCMG)
"The Brownie Of Blednoch" Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933), Oil On Canvas, c. 1889
Image copyright Edward Atkinson Hornel, public domain.
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