The Triumph
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
THE TRIUMPH (R4x24) 4C set Nathaniel Gow RSCDS Book 11- 8 1s lead down the middle and back to top, 1M presenting 1L to 2M
9-16 1L+2M with nearer hands joined dance down the middle followed by 1M, 1L+2M turn inwards (holding hands) and with crossed arms gives LH to partner, 1M+2M join free hands in arch over Ladies head and all 3 dance up in "Triumph", 2M returns to place
17-24 1s dance special Poussette (¼ turn, travel, ¼ turn, ¼ turn, travel, ¼ turn, ½ turn) down the middle to 4th place as 2s+3s+4s step up
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
The Triumph - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The Triumph is a Scottish Country Dance, originally published by Preston in 1793, and modified by Wilson. This version was interpreted by the RSCDS in Book 1, 1924.(Dance information copyright, reproduced here with the kind permission of George Williams)
The original source, published by Preston, gives the music and the dance instructions but does not explain why the title was chosen. Later versions of the dance, including those adapted by Thomas Wilson in the early nineteenth century, introduced variations in the figures, but none of the known early manuals provide an explicit statement about the origin of the name.
The movement most associated with the title in later interpretations involves the first couple being joined by a second man, the lady placed between two gentlemen, and the three advancing together. Some later dance teachers and commentators described this action as the lady being led 'in triumph', and, in some interpretations, the two men raise their joined hands above her, creating a visual effect sometimes compared to a triumphal arch. These descriptive phrases appear in later nineteenth- and twentieth-century commentary, not in the earliest surviving sources.
Historical surveys of country dance manuscripts and printed collections from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries show that the dance and its variants ('The Triumph', 'Lady's Triumph', and others) circulated widely in Britain and North America. However, none of these early documents record the reasoning behind the name.
As no contemporary explanation has yet been found, the origin of the title remains undocumented. Modern suggestions that the name reflects a triumphant procession or an arch-like formation are interpretations derived from later accounts rather than statements from the dance's creators.
The Triumph Crib - Before Minicrib
Image copyright L Abbott, all rights reserved.
Back to the top of this Scottish Country Dancing Instructions 'The Triumph' page