Staten Island
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Staten Island A sixty-four bar Reel for four couples in a square set, devised by John W Mitchell, published in Whetherly Book 7.1-16 Interrupted rights and lefts: The four ladies dance rights and lefts, to commence, first and second ladies give right hands as do third and fourth, they then set; first and fourth ladies then give left hands as do second and third, they then set again before repeating these eight steps back to place. At the same time the four men set, then first and fourth men change places giving right hand as do second and third; they again set then first and second men change places giving left hand as do third and fourth; these eight bars being repeated back to place.
17-24 First and third couples dance a figure of eight round second and fourth places: to commence third lady and first man cross between second couple whilst their partners cross between fourth couple. At the same time second and fourth couples dance rights and lefts, commencing by giving right hand to own partner.
25-32 First and third couples dance rights and lefts, crossing with opposites right hand to commence. At the same time second lady and fourth man dance a figure of eight round first place whilst their partners dance a figure of eight round third place: casting behind first and third places to commence.
33-40 The ladies dance right hands across in a wheel, then turn their partners one and a quarter times with the left hand to finish on their partners' left.
41-48 The men dance right hands across in a wheel, then turn their partners one and quarter times with the left hand to finish on their partners' left. Each couple has thus progressed one place clockwise round the set.
49-56 First and third couples dance rights and lefts, crossing with opposites to commence. Meanwhile second and fourth couples dance rights and lefts giving right hand to partner to commence.
57-64 Eight hands round in a circle to the left and back to the right.
Repeat from new places.
Recommended tune: Staten Island
(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 7, 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).
Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'Staten Island' page