Five For John

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Five For John 5x40 Reel, 5 couple set, Neville Pope

1-4 1st couple dance a half progressive reel with 2nd lady, 1st couple passing right shoulders to begin and finishing with 2nd lady in 1st man's place, 1st man in 1st lady's place and 1st lady in the middle of the set facing her partner ready to pass LS.
While 5th couple dance a half progressive reel with 4th man, 5th couple passing RS to begin and finishing with 4th man in 5th lady's place, 5th lady in 5th man's place and 5th man in the middle of the set facing his partner ready to pass LS.
5-8 1st couple repeat LS with 2nd man WHILE 5th couple repeat LS with 4th lady.
9-12 1st couple repeat RS with 3rd lady while 5th couple repeat RS with 3rd man.
13-16 1st and 5th couples dance half reel of 4 on the diagonal. 1st lady and 5th man do not dance a full reel of 4, but pass their partner LS and follow them to the same side of the dance, pulling back LS to finish next to their partner in 3rd place on the sidelines.
(Men's side: 2nd lady, 3rd lady, 1st lady, 1st man, 4th lady
Ladies' side: 2nd man, 5th lady, 5th man, 3rd man, 4th man)
17-24 1st, 3rd and 5th couples dance the first 8 bars of rights and lefts for 3 couples as in Johnny's Welcome Hame: i.e.
All cross RH with person opposite.
Dancers in 2nd lady's position and 4th man's position change LH on the diagonal while the others change LH on the side.
Repeat, finishing (2), 1, 3, 5, (4)
25-28 1st and 3rd couples dance half rights and lefts. 1st couple stay facing down without any polite turn.
29-32 1st, 5th and 4th couples dance half a reel of 3 on the side. To begin, 1st couple dance out and down, 5th couple cross up to opposite sides and 4th couple dance out and up. Finish in the order 2, 3, 4, 5 and 1, all on opposite sides.
33-40 All turn partner RH ¾; retaining hands, set to partner; all turn ¾ to own side and set, taking hands on the side.

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Neville Pope, September 2009)

Dance Notes

bars 1-12 for 1st couple are the same as bars 1-12 of John of Bon Accord, while the 5th couple mirror the reels from the other end of the set.

(Dance notes by the deviser, Neville Pope)

Dance Information

This is one of the "What if...?" dances that was devised after teaching John of Bon Accord one night when we had a 5 couple set.

Recommended music: Ideally using the original tune for John of Bon Accord, played aabbb, as the first tune but I don't know of any such recordings. In fact, any recordings of 5x40 reels are few and far between.

Recommended Recording: Track 7 (Lt Shortland's Reel) on Strictly Scottish Vol 2 by Robert Whitehead and the Danelaw Band or Track 10 (Trinity Tensome) on Highlander Music Scottish Dances Vol 11 by Roy Hendrie.

(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Neville Pope, 2010)

Published in Sturt Desert Pea Book 2010, copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Neville Pope, 2024.

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