The Tocher Band
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
THE TOCHER BAND (R8x32) 3C (4C set) Roy Goldring Leeds Silver Jubilee1- 8 1s cross RH and cast 2 places while 2s and 3s set and cross up 1 place (no hands), 2s cross RH and cast 2 places while 3s and 1s set and cross up. 312
9-16 1s+2s dance RH across, 3s+1s dance LH across 1s end facing 1st corner positions
17-24 1s dance 'Hello-Goodbye' setting and end setting to partner (1M between 3s facing down 1L between 2s facing up)
25-32 3s+1s+2s advance and retire (up/down), change places RH with opposite person and 1s cast to 2nd place
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Dance Notes
At the end of bar 12, 1L does not make a turn before beginning the left hands across.Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
The Tocher Band - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
This reel, The Tocher Band, was devised for the wedding of Elizabeth and Gerry Yates 2 October 1982.In Scots a "tocher band" is a wedding settlement (tocher being a marriage portion, especially a bride's dowry), and the term can be found in the second verse of The Gallant Weaver - Poem written by Robert Burns in 1791 (a poem which we presume was being referred to here by the deviser, Roy Goldring).
My daddie sign'd my tocher-band,
To gie the lad that has the land,
But to my heart I'll add my hand,
And give it to the Weaver.
While birds rejoice in leafy bowers,
While bees delight in opening flowers,
While corn grows green in summer showers,
I love my gallant Weaver.
The tune The Tocher Band was composed by Muriel Johnstone.
The Gallant Weaver Song - Information Video
"Path Of Roses" William Frederick Yeames (1835-1918), c. 1870
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original The Gallant Weaver article on Wikisource.
Image copyright William Frederick Yeames, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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