Summer On The Neckar

Scottish Country Dance Instruction

1-8 First, second and third couples dance right shoulder reels of three on the sides. First lady and second man should loop at the end of the reel to anticipate the next movement.
9-16 First and second couples dance a Slow Spirale.
17-24 First lady with the second couple and first man with the third cut reels of three across the dance, beginning by giving left shoulder to first corner to begin. All finish as began.
25-32 First and third couples dance 4 hands across and back finishing in a diagonal line holding partner with both hands at just below shoulder height, and fairly wide, first lady will be back to back with second man, ready for...
33-40 First and third couples dance a Hello Goodbye Poussette.
41-48 Six hands round and back.

Repeat with a new top couple.

(Dance crib compiled by the deviser Rod Downey, Johnsonville SCD Club Tutor)

Dance Notes

1-2 First and second couples using two hands and skip change turn ¾ into a line up and down the set facing partner, so that second lady has her back to first man.
3-4 All set.
5-6 First man and second lady cast tightly around each other (pulling back RS, beginning tightly and then opening out) to finish first man in second man's place and second lady in first lady's place, while first lady dances clockwise around the outside of the set to second lady's place and similarly second man to first man's place. (These dancers should not cast but dance straight onwards.)
7-8 All take hands on the sidelines and set. (In the present dance, I would advise that all three couples set on the sidelines on bar 15 and 16.)

Hello Goodbye Poussette A two couple progression, described below for first couple above second.
This begins in a diagonal line between first man's place and second lady's place with 1W and 2M back to back; 1C and 2C holding partners with both hands in order 1M 1W 2M 2W.
They retain hands until the end of bar 6. All begin on the right foot.

1-2 All set R, and move left on the left jeté to finish in a line across the set, with the 1M and 2W back to back. (This rotates the line ⅛, anticlockwise.)
3-4 Repeat a further ⅛, so that we are now on the second diagonal.
5-6 Repeat, so that now all are in a line up and down the set, (from the top), 2M, 2W, 1M, 1W. Drop hands.
7-8 All petronella to own sides in progressed places.

The Slow Spirale is a new formation introduced here, and possibly should be done before La Spirale.

The outer dancers can momentarily hold the hands of their partners at the beginning of bar 6, first lady RH with partner's left, and second lady's LH with partner's right; this tends to keep the cast tighter so that the formation does not lose shape.

The Hello Goodbye Poussette is from the Tuatara Collection, specifically from the dance The Prince Of Sutton Coldfield.

(Dance notes by the deviser, Rod Downey)

Dance Information

Many thanks especially to Stefanie Eckert for going out of her way to pick us up so many times in 2017 and previous years; Gillian and Joe Wheadon for taking us home from the class, and even from Frankfurt, Stefanie and Viktor Lehmann for teaching the class, and to the members for welcoming us there yet again.

Heidelberg lies on the beautiful Neckar River, and is a remarkably nice place to be over the summer. We have lots of very fond memories with ice cream, cycling and biergartens high on this list as well as dancing, of course.

The recommended tune is "Miss Gayton's Hornpipe". A suitable recording is "The Sound of Harris" by Andrew Rankine and his Band.

Any reasonable 3 x 48 hornpipe would probably work.

(Dance information from The Johnsonville Collection Of Scottish Country Dances, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Rod Downey)

With a population of 159,914, (2016, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students) it is located about 78 km (48 mi) south of Frankfurt. Heidelberg is the fifth-largest city in Baden-Württemberg, part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region.

Heidelberg University, founded in 1386, is Germany's oldest and one of Europe's most reputable universities. Heidelberg is a scientific hub in Germany and home to several internationally renowned research facilities adjacent to its university, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and four Max Planck Institutes.

The city has also been a hub for the arts, especially literature, throughout the centuries, and it was designated a "City of Literature" by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.

Heidelberg On The Neckar In Summer (June)

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