Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary

Quick And Quicker Flew

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Quick and Quicker Flew
Maggie and Duncan Keppie Haliburton School Of Arts SCD Book 2: Let's dance
32 bar reel
Couple facing couple Round The Room
(C=couple facing clockwise, A=couple facing anticlockwise)

  1-8   SET TO EACH PERSON AND ADVANCE: set to opposite, set to diagonally opposite person, set to partner, then C-couple join nearer hands and dance forward to between A-couple;

  9-16 TANDEM REEL OF 3 AND TURN: C-couple dropping hands dance a reel of 3 in tandem with A-couple starting by passing opposite man by the right shoulder (C-couple switch lead at each end of the reel)(6 bars), then turn opposite person halfway with the appropriate hand (2 bars);

17-24 TANDEM REEL OF 3 AND TURN: repeat bars 9-16 with A-couple in tandem: end with C-couple in middle between A-couple nearer hands joined with partner and join other hand with A-couple;

25-32 BALANCE, ½ TURN, BALANCE AND ¾ TURN: all set in line, turn A-couple into center and join hands, set in line, and turn ¾ to end facing next couple around the room.

Repeat as required.

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


Dance Information

The title of this dance, Quick and Quicker Flew, comes from the Tam O' Shanter - Poem written by Robert Burns in 1790, while living in Dumfries, Scotland.

The piper loud and louder blew,
The dancers quick and quicker flew;

Tam O' Shanter Poem - Information Video

Tam O' Shanter And The Witches Print
"Tam O' Shanter And The Witches" John Faed (1819-1902), Print, c. 1892


Image from John Faed RSA. 1855., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Quick And Quicker Flew' page