Sawney Bean's Reel

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

Sawney Bean's Reel (R5x32) 5C set Lewis N Derrick 1990

1-4 With hands joined on sidelines, all five couples set then the 1st and 3rd couples cast off one place on own sides, the 2nd and 4th couples stepping up on bars 3-4
5-8 Crossing up to begin, the 1st couple dance half a figure of eight around the 2nd couple while the 3rd couple dance half a figure of eight around the 4th couple to end on opposite sides in second and fourth places respectively
9-16 With hands joined on sidelines, all five couples set then, dropping hands, dance back to back with partners and, re-joining hands on sidelines, set again
17-24 The 2nd and 1st and 3rd and 5th couples dance four hands round and back
25-28 With hands joined on sidelines, all five couples set then the 1st and 3rd couples cast off one place on opposite sides, the 4th and 5th couples stepping up on bars 27-28
29-32 Crossing up to begin, the 1st couple dance half a figure of eight around the 4th couple while the 3rd couple dance half a figure of eight around the 5th couple to end on own sides in the order 24153

Repeat four more times from new positions each time

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Lewis N Derrick 2020)

Dance Information

This dance, Sawney Bean's Reel, was devised by Lewis Derrick to commemorate Alexander 'Sawney' Bean the sixteenth-century Scottish cannibal.

Suggested tune: Leggett's Reel.

Devised 1990, revised 2020, first published electronically 2020.

(Dance information from The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets #29, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick)

Published in The McGhie Scottish Country Dance Sheets, Collection 3, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Lewis N Derrick.

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