Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

The Cat And The Fiddle

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE (J8x32) 3C (4C set) John Drewry Greenburn Book 3

1- 8 1s set, cast 1 place and dance ½ Figs of 8 (1M round 2s and 1L round 3s)
9-16 1s dance ½ reels of 3 on sides (LSh to 1st corner to start) and ½ diagonal reel of 4 with 2nd corners (RSh to 2nd corner to start)
17-24 1s dance ½ reel of 3 across (LSh to 3rd corner to start) and ½ diagonal reel of 4 with 4th corners (RSh to 4th corner) ending with a ¾ turn LH
25-32 1M dances up between 2s while 1L dances down between 3s, cast left to 2nd places own sides and 2s+1s+3s turn RH

(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)

Keith Rose's Crib Diagram

The Cat And The Fiddle Keith Rose's Diagram
The Cat And The Fiddle - Full Size And Key To Symbols

Dance Instruction Videos

The Cat And The Fiddle - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

This dance shares its title with the The Cat And The Fiddle - Song, an English nursery rhyme also known as "Hey Diddle Diddle", "Hi Diddle Diddle" and "The Cow Jumped Over the Moon".

The familiar verse describes a cat playing a fiddle, a cow jumping over the moon, a little dog laughing and a dish running away with a spoon. Versions of the rhyme are recorded from the eighteenth century, although some of its phrases have earlier parallels.

The name "Cat And The Fiddle" was a common name for inns, including one known to have been at Old Chaunge, London by 1587.

A common modern version of the rhyme is:

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed,
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

The Cat And The Fiddle Song - Information Video

The Cat And The Fiddle
The Cat And The Fiddle
This page uses content under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, along with original copyrighted content and excerpts from Wikipedia and other sources.
Text from this original Hey Diddle Diddle article on Wikipedia.
Image from Nursery_Rhymes.djvu: Edward Coggerderivative work: Theornamentalist, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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