Chaperons
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
ChaperonsReuben Freemantle www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com
Jig 4 x 32 bars 4 Couple Repeat 4 Couple Set Longwise Set
1-8 1s 3s face down and to the left, 2s 4s up and to the left to start parallel reels of 4 on the sides;
9-16 1s2s 3s4s right hands across and back;
17-22 1s2s3s4s dance ¾ of parallel reverse reels of 4 on the sides (1s2s 3s4s giving left shoulder to start);
23-24 1s 4s complete the reels finishing 1s 4M facing in, 4L facing out WHILE 2s3s turn halfway with both hands on the sides and open out to face in, retaining nearer hands hold;
25-26 4L cast up two places, WHILE 4M cross to 4L's place WHILE 2M3M 2L3L advance and release hold finishing on the centre line facing down, side by side with partners and nearer hands joined;
27-28 2s 3s lead down one place, release hands and finish facing out toward own sides, 2s in 3rd position, 3s in 4th, WHILE 4L cross to 2M's place WHILE 4M cast to 2L's place WHILE 1s cross by the right, retaining hold;
29-30 1s4s right hands across halfway WHILE 2M3M 2L3L lead out to the side lines, finishing 4s1s2s3s, all facing in;
31-32 all set facing partners, turning on the spot to finish 4s 2s facing down and to the left, 1s 3s facing up and to the left (but all facing in at the end of the 4th repeat).
(MAXICRIB. Scottish country dancing instructions compiled by Reuben Freemantle)
Dance Notes
The dance is intended to flow seamlessly from one figure to the next as far as possible so that, at the end of every phrase, the dancers are facing in the correct direction for the beginning of the next phrase.1-8 Partners should be exactly the width of the set apart at all times and on the same level up and down. Covering must be visual since hands cannot be taken in parallel reels.
-8 2M3M 2L3L should already have passed left shoulders.
17-24 In reverse reels of 4 (also known as left shoulder reels of 4), the dancers pass by the left at the ends. The same considerations apply over parallelism as in bars 1-8.
23-24 Instead of passing right shoulders, 3M2M 3L2L take both hands and turn halfway by the right on the sides into original places (a quick movement similar to that in bars 31-32 of Fifty Years On); 4L finish facing out, all others in.
25-26 1s stand for two bars and so 1M can encroach on the beginning of this phrase to finish facing in.
-32 On the 1st, 2nd and 3rd repeats, all release hands on the left foot step, pulling right shoulder back, 4M 1L 2M 3L turning 1⁄8 on the spot, 4L 1M 2L 3M turning 5⁄8.
(Dance notes by the deviser, Reuben Freemantle)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Information
This jig, Chaperons, is so-named because 2s and 3s (like chaperons) successfully thwart any attempted assignation of 1M with 1L or 4M with 4L for 24 bars. 1s and 4s cannot meet their partners since they are constrained to stay exactly the same distance apart during the parallel reels and the chaperons pass between them; the chaperons are ever present even during the hands across.On bar 25, while the chaperons congratulate themselves on their success and take their eyes off their charges, 4th couple slip away and, on bar 27, 1st couple also take advantage of the opportunity to elude the chaperons.
On bar 31, the errant 1s and 4s return to the party as though nothing had happened.
(Dance information by the deviser, Reuben Freemantle)
A chaperone (or occasionally chaperon) is an adult who accompanies or supervises one or more young, unmarried men or women during social occasions, usually with the specific intent of preventing inappropriate social interactions or other bad behavior.
The chaperone is typically accountable to a third party, usually the parents of one of the accompanied young people.
"The Chaperon" Alice Barber Stephens (1858-1932), c. 1908
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original Chaperon article on Wikipedia.
Image copyright Alice Barber Stephens, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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