The Soldier's Dance
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
The Soldier's Dance A forty-eight bar Jig for four couples in a four couple longwise set, devised by John W Mitchell, Published in Whetherly Book 3.1- 8 First and third couples set, cast off behind the couple below them; cross over giving right hand in passing and cast up into their partner's original place.
9-12 First and second couples dance right hands across, in a wheel, whilst third and fourth couples do the same.
13-16 Second and third couples dance left hands across in a wheel to finish in the middle facing their corners.
17-20 Turn corner with the right hand, the, second and third couples dance left hands across in a wheel half way to face the diagonally opposite corner.
21-24 Repeat bars 17-20 with new corners to finish on opposite sides.
25-32 First and second couples dance a ladies' chain up and down the set, third and fourth do the same. First and third couples retain left hand and finish facing down the set.
33-36 First couple lead down below second couple, with the left hand, cross over and cast up into their original places; whilst third couple do the same round fourth couple.
37-40 First couple dance down the middle to fourth place, the other three couples step up on bars 39 & 40.
41-48 Eight hands round in a circle to the left for four bars and back to the right.
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 3, 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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