Smith's A Gallant Fireman
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Smith's a Gallant Fireman A thirty-two bar Strathspey for four couples in a longwise set, devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 2.1- 4 First couple cross over giving right hand and cast off, second couple step up. Meanwhile fourth couple cross over giving right hand and cast up, third couple step down.
5- 8 First and fourth couples dance left hands across in a wheel to finish facing the four corners.
9-16 Double reels of four with corners on the diagonal. Dancers passing in the middle give left hands across. First and fourth couples finish back to back in the centre facing corners on the diagonal.
17-24 Double Highland Schottische Hello-Goodbye setting:
17-18 set to corners with Highland Schottische step, right foot turning at the end of bar 18 so that first man and fourth lady face across, and their partners face up and down;
19-20 all set with Highland Schottische step, left foot, first and fourth couples turning into face their next corner at the end of bar 20;
21-24 these four bars are repeated.
25-28 All turn the person they are facing with the left hand.
29-32 Fourth and first couples turn partner with the right hand to finish on own side of the set in the order 2, 4, 1, 3.
Repeat with new top couple.
(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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