Cutty Sark

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

CUTTY SARK (J8x32) 3C (4C set) RSCDS Book 40

1- 8 1s cast down own sides and cast back to 2nd place (2s step up 3-4)
9-16 2s+1s dance RH across and LH back
17-24 1s turn RH to face 1st corners, turn 1st corner LH, turn 2nd corner RH and cross LH to 2nd places own sides
25-32 2s+1s+3s advance and retire and turn RH. 213

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

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

Cutty Sark - Full Size And Key To Symbols

Dance Instruction Videos

Cutty Sark - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction Video

Dance Information

The Cutty Sark is a clipper ship. Built in 1869, she served as a merchant vessel (the last clipper to be built for that purpose), and then as a training ship until being put on public display in 1954. She is preserved in dry dock in Greenwich, London. The Cutty Sark is one of only three remaining original clipper ships from the nineteenth century.

The ship was named after Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee in Robert Burns's 1790 Tam O' Shanter - Poem.

Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn,
That while a lassie she had worn,
...
And roars out, "Weel done, Cutty-sark!"
And in an instant all was dark:

The ship's figurehead is a stark white carving of a bare-breasted Nannie Dee with long black hair holding a grey horse's tail in her hand. In the poem she wore a linen sark (Scots: a short chemise or undergarment), that she had been given as a child, which explains why it was cutty, or in other words far too short. The erotic sight of her dancing in such a short undergarment caused Tam to cry out "Weel done, Cutty-sark", which subsequently became a well known catchphrase.

The ship's figurehead shows Cutty-sark, the nickname of the witch Nannie Dee who chases Tam o' Shanter, snatching his horse's tail before he escapes by crossing water.

Cutty Sark - Information Video

Tam O' Shanter Poem - Information Video

Cutty Sark - 2012

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Additional search terms: Kutty.

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