Foursome Reel
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
FOURSOME REEL (M-(S32+R32)) 2C RSCDS Book 32 Couples (facing). Highland setting throughout
Strathspey
1- 8 All dance reel of 4 across Ladies passing LSh in centre to start and end with Men BtoB in the middle facing opposite partners
9-16 All set
17-24 All dance reel of 4 giving RSh to opposite partner and end with Men in middle facing own partners
25-32 All set
Reel
1-32 Repeat 1-32 above in reel time
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Dance Notes
Dance an even number of times as Strathspey, then same number of times as Reel.Often danced as Strathspey and Reel Of Tulloch
(Dance notes by MINICRIB)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
Foursome Reel - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
Foursome Reel is an Old Scottish Country Dance, although people were probably dancing foursome reels as early as 1710 or so, no written description of the dance can be found until 1808 when Thomas Wilson published one in London.In c. 1830 both W. Smyth and the Lowe brothers published a version in Edinburgh.
This version was published by the (R)SCDS in Book 3, 1926.
(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)
The foursome reel is regarded as a longstanding Scottish social dance, and surviving evidence indicates that it predates well-known formations such as the eightsome reel, the reel of Tulloch, and later competition-style Highland dances.
Unlike the country dances introduced from elsewhere in Europe, the foursome belongs to a native Scottish tradition. When compared with early Scottish ring dances noted in historical records, or with sword dances of the Papa Stour type (a traditional ritual dance from the Shetland island of Papa Stour), the foursome reel shows features that are characteristically Scottish rather than simply regional variations of a wider European form.
This reel forms part of a family of related dances that includes, among others, The Threesome Reel (RSCDS Book 6), The Axum Reel and The Eight Men Of Moidart.
Reels in this family share a repeated pattern in which the dancers first perform a travelling movement for one eight-bar phrase, then a setting step for the next eight bars, before returning to the travelling figure with the travelling part varying between dances.
The earliest known reference to reel-type dancing in Scotland occurs in Gavin Douglas's Scots translation of Virgil's Aeneid, the Eneados. Douglas completed this work in 1513, and the surviving early manuscripts show the Middle Scots term "reland", which is understood as a form of the verb meaning "to reel" in the sense of dancing.
The relevant lines appear in the section describing a festive gathering. In Middle Scots the passage reads:
"Dansys and rowndis traysing mony gatis,
Athir throu other reland, on thair gys."
A literal rendering into modern English is:
"Dances and rounds tracing many ways,
Each through another reeling, in their fashion."
This citation is the earliest securely attested instance of a reel-related term in Scottish sources, and it marks the first documented appearance of the word that later becomes associated with the family of Scottish reel dances.
The first known mention of a specific reel is found in 1710 with the name Threesom reel. A later description from 1776, recorded by the English visitor Major Topham during a stay in Edinburgh, refers directly to the foursome reel.
From the late eighteenth century onward, the foursome was the most frequently danced member of the group on mainland Scotland. Its popularity may be explained by the practical advantage of involving two couples rather than three individuals. Reels with larger numbers of dancers appear to have been treated mainly as curiosities or occasional variants, although in Orkney and Shetland different six-hand forms remained particularly well liked.
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 Eneados article on Wikipedia.
Additional search terms: 4 Some.
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