Le Trèfle À Quatre Feuilles
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
LE TRÈFLE À QUATRE FEUILLES (J8x32) 3C (4C set) Anne Dejean The Walnut book 21- 8 1s turn RH, cast (2s step up bars 5-6), ½ turn RH to face 1st corners
9-24 "The Four Leaf Clover Shape":
9-12 1s dance Corners pass and turn with 1st corners and pass RSh to face 2nd corners
13-16 repeat bars 9-12 with 2nd corners to end facing 3rd corners
17-20 repeat bars 9-12 with 3rd corners to end facing 4th corners
21-24 repeat bars 9-12 with 4th corners to finish in 2nd place own sides
25-32 All dance 6H round and back. 213
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Le Trèfle À Quatre Feuilles J8x32 Anne Dejean
32-bar jig for three couples in a four-couple longwise set
1 - 8 1st couple, giving right hands, turn once round, cast off to second place (2nd couple move up on bars 5-6), and giving right hands again, turn halfway round to face first corners.
9 - 24 The Four Leaf Clover Shape:
9 - 12 1st couple dance corners pass and turn with first corners and pass partner by the right to finish facing second corners.
13 - 16 Repeat bars 9-12 with second corners and finish facing third corners (one place on to the left).
17 - 20 Repeat bars 9-12 with third corners and finish facing fourth corners (one more place on to the left).
21 - 24 Repeat bars 9-12 with fourth corners and finish in second place on own sides.
25 - 32 2nd, 1st and 3rd couples dance six hands round and back.
Repeat, having passed a couple.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser Anne Dejean, April 2019)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
Le Trèfle À Quatre Feuilles - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
"Le Trèfle à Quatre Feuilles" is the French term for a four-leaf clover, a rare natural variation of the common clover plant, Trifolium repens, and widely recognised in European tradition as a symbol of good fortune. The title reflects this meaning directly, using a familiar French expression rather than an English equivalent.This jig was devised as a teaching dance to introduce the "corners pass and turn" formation, a standard movement in Scottish country dancing in which dancers interact in sequence with the corner positions. The structure of the dance is arranged so that this formation can be practised clearly and repeatedly.
The dance proved particularly effective in a group where only a small number of participants understood English. For that reason, it was given a French title, allowing the name to be immediately understood and remembered by the dancers. The choice of a well-known symbol such as the four-leaf clover also supports recognition and recall.
Four-Leaf Clover - Trifolium Repens
Published in The Walnut Book 2, reproduced here with the kind permission of Anne Dejean.
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 Four-Leaf Clover article on Wikipedia.
Image from KEBman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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