Strawberry Bank
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
Strawberry Bank A one hundred and twenty-eight bar Reel for four couples in a square set, devised by John W Mitchell, published in Whetherly Book 7.1- 2 First and third couples change places giving right hands in passing, whilst second end fourth couples set.
3- 4 Second and fourth couples change places giving right hands in passing, whilst first and third couples set.
5- 8 All turn corners one and a half times with the left hand to change places.
9-32 Repeat bars 1-8 three times to return to original places.
33-36 The ladies dance right hands across in a wheel three quarters round.
37-38 Ladies turn their corners with the left hand.
39-40 Ladies turn their partners with the right hand.
41-44 Men dance left hands across in a wheel three quarters round.
45-46 Men turn their corners with the right hand.
47-48 Men turn their partners with the left hand.
49-50 All change places with corners giving right hand.
51-52 All turn next person with the left hand once round.
53-54 All change places with corners giving right hand.
55-56 All turn partners with left hand once round.
57-64 Eight hands round to the left in a circle end back to the right.
65-56 All turn corners once round with the left hand.
67-70 All dance back to back with own partner.
71-72 All change places with partner giving right hand in passing, to face opposite corner.
73-80 Repeat bars 65-72 back to place.
81-88 Ladies slip clockwise half way round in a circle, at the same time the men slip anticlockwise half way round outside the ladies.
89-96 Half a grand chain back to place, giving the right hand to partner to commence, two steps to each hand.
97-100 First and third couples dance half rights and lefts. At the same time second and fourth couples change places, ladies dancing anticlockwise and men dancing clockwise outside them. All are now on the opposite sides with second and fourth ladies on their partners' left.
101-104 Second and fourth couples dance half rights and lefts whilst first and third dance round them back to their original places. All ladies are now on their partners' left.
105-112 Eight hands round to the left in a circle and back to the right.
113-128 Repeat bars 97-112 back to original places.
Recommended tune: Strawberry Bank
(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).
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