Catenary
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Catenary (3x40S) 40 bar strathspey for three couples in a three couple longwise set, Murrough Landon, 2020.1-4 1st and 2nd couples advance for one, retire for one and mirror link with 1st couple casting off to 2nd place and 2nd couple dancing up to 1st place.
5-8 1st couple advance for one, touch right hands and retire for one. Then giving right hands they turn once round to end facing out on own sides.
9-16 Relay Chain:
1-2: 1st couple chase a quarter clockwise while 2nd and 3rd couples, giving right hands, turn their partner three quarters, all ending on the centre line.
3-4: 1st man and 2nd woman, also 3rd man and 1st woman, taking promenade hold, chase a quarter clockwise while 2nd man and 3rd woman, giving left hands, turn three quarters, all ending in a line across.
5-6: 1st couple drop promenade hold and chase another quarter clockwise to the ends of the centre line while 2nd and 3rd couples, giving right hands, turn their partner three quarters on the sides ending at full arms length.
7-8: All chase a quarter clockwise ending opposite partner in the order 3,1,2.
17-20 1st couple, giving right hands, turn one and a quarter times to end on the centre line, 1st man above 1st woman.
21-24 3rd couple with 1st man and 1st woman with 2nd couple dance left hands across.
25-32 Bourrel Chain:
1-4: 3rd woman and 2nd man chase just over half way anticlockwise to end on the centre line while 3rd man and 1st woman also 1st man and 2nd woman, giving right hands, turn just over one and a half times ending on the centre line.
5-8: 2nd man and 1st woman, 3rd man and 2nd woman also 1st man and 3rd woman, giving left hands, turn half way. Then 1st couple chase round a quarter anticlockwise while 2nd and 3rd couples, giving right hands, turn three quarters to end facing out on the sides. The phrasing here is closer to 1+3 bars than 2+2.
The order is now 2,1,3 with 1st couple on opposite sides facing in.
33-36 All dance half a reel of three on the sides, 1st couple start by giving right shoulder to their 2nd corners. The corners finish the reel with extra loops.
37-40 1st couple dance half a figure of eight right shoulder around their 4th corner (1st man down, 1st woman up) to end in 2nd place own sides. The final order is 3,1,2.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA September 2020)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Catenary - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The dance includes two different chain-like figures involving three couples, neither of which is exactly the formation, originally from Linnea's Strathspey by Tim Wilson, that the RSCDS (in my opinion) misnames the "three couple chain progression".In mathematics, a catenary is the curve a chain forms when hanging from its end points.
Recommended Music: Mrs Jessie Blair's Strathspey (Jimmy Shand, senior).
Suitable recording: The Geordie Diamond (Robert Whitehead and the Danelaw SCD Band:The Geordie Diamond).
(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA 2020)
Catenary Formed By Chain
Published in Catenary, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA.
Image copyright Kamel15, Creative Commons Licence 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Catenary' page