Mille Querce
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Mille Querce (5x32R) 32 bar reel for five dancers in a square set, Murrough Landon, 2024.Dancers 1, 2, 3 and 4 are at the corners of a square in the places 1st woman, 3rd woman, 3rd man and 1st man would occupy in a smallish longwise set. Dancer 5 is in the centre facing up to dancers 1 and 2.
1-4 Dancer 5 sets as in double triangles joining hands with dancers 4 and 1 who also join nearer hands on the sides with dancers 3 and 2 to form an M shape. The corners dance in as necessary.
The corners continue setting, with arms raised highland fashion, as dancer 5 sets, turning half way to face down, optionally also with arms raised highland fashion.
5-8 All repeat bars 1-4. Dancer 5 ends facing up as the corners retire to original places.
9-16 Dancer 5 dances half a reel of three with dancers 1 and 3, starting right shoulder to dancer 1. Dancer 5 then repeats with dancers 4 and 2, starting right shoulder to dancer 4. Dancer 5 ends facing dancer 1 again in position 3. The corners are in the order 3,4,1,2.
17-24 Dancer 5 dances two half "push-me pull-you" reels of three with dancers 1 and 3 and then with dancers 4 and 2. Dancer 5 follows the same track as for another two half right shoulder reels of three, but the corners dance back to back on the diagonal. The corners are still in the order 3,4,1,2. Dancer 2 ends by pulling right shoulder back.
Dancer 5 ends taking promenade hold with dancer 2 in position 4. They face clockwise with dancer 5 on the outside, to the left of dancer 2 who is on the inside.
25-28 All chase half way round clockwise. Dancer 5 releases promenade hold and ends in the centre again. The corners are all back in their original positions.
29-30 Dancers 5, 1 and 2 dance right hands across one third round so that dancer 2 ends in the centre facing up.
31-32 Dancers 2, 4 and 3 dance left hands across one third round so that dancer 3 ends in the centre facing up. The order is now 5,1,4,2,3.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA January 2024)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Mille Querce - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
This dance is for Robb Quint who sends out a colourful daily "SCD-SoCal" email on matters related to Scottish Country Dancing or with some, perhaps tenuous, link to Scotland: its art, geography or history. These mails have a wide international following in addition to his local dancers in Southern California.Robb lives in Thousand Oaks, west of Los Angeles, and is a keen linguist. So the SCD-SoCal-mails are often peppered with quotes in a variety of languages. The "Mille Querce" title of this dance is Italian for "Thousand Oaks". It may look a little like Quirky Mails but is pronounced "Meel-Lay Kwair-Chay".
The five person square set was chosen as "Quint" is reminiscent of "five" in Latin languages. It also allows the M shaped setting figure which represents 1,000 in Roman numerals.
The highland arms are here symbolising oak trees with acorns and branches rather than traditional deer eyes and antlers.
The chase with one pair in promenade hold might suggest a rotating letter Q.
Suitable recording: Sgurr Alasdair (Keith Smith and Muriel Johnstone: Vintage Goldring).
(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA 2024)
Published in Mille Querce, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA.
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