The Rocket Hornpipe
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
The Rocket Hornpipe A thirty-two bar Hornpipe for two couples in a circle round the room, each man with his partner on his right. First couple facing clockwise, second anticlockwise, devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 2.1- 8 Four hands round in a circle to the left and back to the right.
9-12 Set and dance right hands across in a wheel half way. Ladies retain right hands.
13-16 Men cast anticlockwise as ladies cross giving right hands for a half ladies' chain.
17-24 First and second couples dance rights and lefts, giving right hand to own partner to start.
25-28 First couple are in inner circle and second couple in outer circle, each man with his partner on his left. First couple facing second couple join nearer hands and set to opposite pas de basque coupé step. Hands joined all round room in two circles.
29-32 All turn opposite with two hands one and a half times to change places using pas de basque step. On last bar the men release left hands (ladies right) and open out to finish back to back with original partner. Original opposite lady is now on men's right. The men are facing in the original direction having advanced one place and exchanged partners.
Repeat from new place with new partner.
(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 2, 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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