Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Gie Us The Gift

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Gie Us The Gift
Maggie and Duncan Keppie Haliburton School Of Arts SCD Book 2: Let's dance
4x32 bar strathspey
4-couple dance in longways set

  1-8   ENDS SET, CROSS, CAST AND SET TO CORNER; 1st and 4th couples set to partner, cross over with right hands, cast to center ending back-to-back facing a corner (2nd and 3rd couples step up and down, respectively), and all set to corner;

  9-20 ROTATING INTERLOCKING REEL OF 4 (12 BARS): All dance partial reels of 4 through the center of the set (Bar 9: pass corner by the right shoulder; Bars 10-11: corners dance ¾ left hands across AS 1st and 4th couples dance ¼ round the periphery of the set; Bar 12: pass corner by the right shoulder; Bars 13-14: 1st and 4th couples dance ¾ left hands across AS corners dance ¼ around the periphery of the set; REPEAT Bars 9-14 (all end as at the end of Bar 8);

21-24 1ST AND 4TH DANCE CLOCKWISE ROUND CORNER: 1st and 4th couples dance around corner passing them by the right shoulder;

25-32 1ST AND 4TH 1½ LEFT HAND WHEEL AND CROSS: 1st and 4th dance four hands across with left hands 1½ times around, then cross over with partner using left hands (ending order is 2nd 4th 1st 3rd).

Repeat 3 times.

(Dance crib compiled by the devisers, Maggie and Duncan Keppie)


Dance Information

The title of this dance, Gie Us The Gift, comes from the last verse of To A Louse - Poem written by Robert Burns in 1786.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

To A Louse Poem - Information Video

Gie Us The Gift
Inscription Of The Temple Of Delphi
"Know Yourself, Youth Between Vice And Vertu" Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), Oil On Canvas, c. 1613-1678


Image copyright Attributed to Jacob Jordaens, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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