The March To The Battlefield
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
The March To The Battlefield A forty-eight bar Reel for four couples in a longwise set. On the second chord the third and fourth couples cross to the opposite side of the set. Devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 12.1- 4 First lady casts off below fourth man and starts to dance up, whilst fourth lady casts up above first man and starts to dance down.
5- 8 First lady dances right hands across with third and fourth men whilst fourth lady dances right hands across with the first and second men.
9-12 The four ladies dance left hands across to finish on the side lines, first lady in fourth man's place and fourth lady in first lady's place.
13-16 All four ladies turn the man they are facing by the right hand once round.
17-20 First man casts off below his partner and starts to dance up, whilst fourth man casts up above his partner and starts to dance down.
21-24 First man dances left hands across in a wheel with the first and third ladies, whilst fourth man dances left hands across with fourth and second ladies.
25-28 The four men dance right hands across in a wheel to finish with first man in fourth ladies place and fourth man in first man's place.
29-52 All four men turn their partner's with the left hand.
33-40 Fourth and second couples dance a granny knot*, third and first couples do the same. (Turn left hand half way into a left handed allemande hold, top two couples facing down and bottom two facing up; Second couple followed by the fourth cast up on the men's side whilst the third followed by the first casts down on the ladies' side. Releasing left hand all turn right hand to finish on the side lines, second and fourth on own sides and first and third on opposite sides).
41-48 Eight hands round to the left in a circle and back to the right. Finish in the order 2, 4, 1, 3.
Repeat with new top couple. Recommended tune: The March to the Battlefield * The granny knot for two couples is described in the appendix of this book.
(Dance crib reproduced from The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Published in The Whetherly Book Of Scottish Country Dances Number 12, by John W Mitchell, revised and republished by Alison Mitchell. Instructions reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-ND 4.0).
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