Red Deer

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1- 4 The men dance half way round anticlockwise passing in front of their partner and behind the next woman to end facing the opposite woman.
5- 8 All turn the facing person three quarters with the right hand.
 Then the men set on the sides and end facing clockwise while the women dance half left hands across, briefly retaining left hands and joining right hands with their partner in a cross formation.
9-10 All set to the right for one bar, changing to join left hands with their partner. Then all half turn with the left hand and face their partner, the women facing out and the men facing in.
11-12 All set to the right for one bar, the men towards the corners and the women towards the side on their right. Then all half turn in the corners with the right hand (1st woman with 2nd man and so on) ending on a slight diagonal. The women are slightly to the right of the women's places facing in. The men are back to back in the centre facing out.
13-16 All dancing half intersecting reels of four with a quick half left hands across in the centre. On the last bar the women slightly lengthen their step and the men shorten their step to end again joining hands in another cross formation similar to the end of bar 8. The men are now in the centre and their "corner" women are on the outside facing clockwise.
17-24 All repeat the pattern of bars 9-16 from new places. This time the women all end back to back in the centre facing out to their partners who face in. The order is now 2,3,4,1.
25-28 All turn their partner one and a quarter times with both hands and open out to face in.
29-32 All dance set and link to end in opposite gender places. Repeat switching roles each time.

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA August 2023)

Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams

Red Deer - Full Size And Key To Symbols

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Dance Information

It is slightly different but it still resembles the original which was written for a workshop in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada.

Recommended music: Suggested tune The Banks Of Spey by William Marshall; suitable recording The Banks of Spey (Keith Smith and Muriel Johnstone: Campbell's Birl).

(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA August 2023)

It serves as a hub for central Alberta and is home to key industries such as healthcare, retail trade, construction, oil and gas, hospitality, manufacturing, and education. The city is surrounded by Red Deer County and borders Lacombe County. Situated in the aspen parkland region, Red Deer features rolling hills and lies alongside the Red Deer River.

Before the arrival of European settlers, the area was inhabited by First Nations groups, including the Blackfoot, Plains Cree, and Stoney. A First Nations trail once connected the Montana Territory with Fort Edmonton, crossing the Bow River near modern-day Calgary and the Red Deer River at a wide, stony ford. This crossing, known as the "Old Red Deer Crossing", is located about 7 kilometres (4.3 miles) upstream from the current city.

The Cree referred to the river as Waskasoo Seepee, meaning "Elk River". Early European settlers, who mistakenly identified North American elk as "red deer" (after the Eurasian species), adopted the name for the community.

Red Deer, Alberta, Canada

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