Loch A' Chait

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Loch A' Chait (Loch Of The Cat In A Deep Corrie)
Maggie and Duncan Keppie Gaelic College SCD Book 12: Corrie Dances
Jig 4/5 x 24 bars 2 Couple Repeat 2 Couple Set Progressive Round the Room Set
Couple facing couple around the Room.

1-8 PARALLEL REELS OF 3: starting passing the opposite person, dance a reel of three around the outer or inner circle in parallel with partner;

9-16 SET, TURN INTO SKYE HOLD AND DANCE ANTICLOCKWISE ROUND OPPOSITE COUPLE: nearer hands joined with partner, set to opposite couple (2 bars), then turn into Skye Hold (men dance clockwise to partner's place AS women dance to partner's place pulling left shoulder back ending facing away from opposite couple - woman's left arm passes in front of her to right shoulder where it is joined with man's right hand (2 bars), then dance as a couple anticlockwise (men on the inside) once around couple behind (original opposite couple) ending with men's left shoulder in the middle (4 bars);

17-24 WEE CORRIE: couples unwind changing places with partner (women pull right shoulder back and dance to partner's place AS men dance forward to partner's place and face clockwise (2 bars), chase clockwise with next couple nearly halfway round men leading (2 bars), turn partner halfway with right hands (2 bars), and set to partner (2 bars) (end facing next couple around the circle).

Repeat with next couple around the circle.

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

Dance Notes

As with all dances having this format, the number of repeats is not fixed.

(Dance notes by Reuben Freemantle)

Dance Information

"Loch a' chait" in Gaelic means "Loch of the cat"; it has the alternative name, "Lochan nan cat" which means "Small loch of the cats". It is located in a corrie (Gaelic "coire"), deep enough that water is retained, on the NE slope of Ben Lawers (Gaelic "Beinn Labhair") which in turn is NW of Loch Tay (Gaelic "Loch Tatha") in the southern part of the Scottish Highlands. "Loch a' chait" should be pronounced as "Loch ~ chahch" in English, "Lochan nan cat" as "Loch~n nan kaht", "coire" as "ko~r~", "Beinn Labhair" as "Bayn Lah~r" and "Loch Tatha" as "Loch Tah~", with stress always on the first syllable and where:
  ch is as in "loch";
  "~" represents the , vowel sound;
  "ah" is as in "shah";
  "ch" is as in "chat"; and
  "ay" is as in "bay".
See Gaelic Dance Names for more information on Gaelic spelling and pronunciation.

Loch A' Chait

Image copyright G Laird under this Creative Commons Licence 2.0.

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