A View Of The Valley
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
A View Of The Valley (5x32J) 32 bar jig for five couples in a longwise set, Murrough Landon, 20191- 4 1st and 3rd couples cross over giving right hands and then cast off one place as 2nd and 4th couples step up.
5- 8 1st and 3rd couples turn one and a half times giving left hands and end facing their third corners.
9-24 Dance to Far Corners and Set. This is a five couple version of Dance to Each Corner and Set for three couples but only those dancing out to 1st and 5th places set. Those dancing out to 3rd place turn to face the other half of the set, pulling right shoulder back, and immediately continue dancing in and round the opposite corner person. 1st woman and 3rd man never reach the corners but just dance round the centre twice.
9-10: 1st and 3rd couples change places with their 3rd corners passing them right shoulder, the 3rd corners also pass each other right shoulder and turn to face the 4th corners. Meanwhile the far 4th corners (in 1st woman's and 5th man's places) set.
11-12: Those now in the centre repeat this pattern with the 4th corners as those now in 1st man's and 5th woman's places set. 2nd man and 5th woman need to make a sharp turn to the right to face into the other half of the set.
13-24: All repeat the pattern of bars 9-12 three more times.
On bars 23-24 1st and 3rd couples dance in but do not pass right shoulder. They end on the centre line with the women in the top half of the set and the men at the bottom. 1st couple are facing down and 3rd couple are facing up.
The corners end diametrically opposite where they started, 5th couple are at the top, 4th couple in 3rd place and 2nd couple at the bottom, all on opposite sides.
25-26 1st and 3rd couples dance two bars of a right shoulder reel of four on the centre line.
27-28 On meeting their partner 3rd and 1st couples half turn with the right hand to end in lines across, with 3rd man facing 5th man at the top, 3rd woman facing 4th woman and 1st man facing 4th man in 3rd place and 1st woman facing 2nd woman at the bottom.
29-32 3rd man with 5th couple, also 1st woman with 2nd couple, dance half a right shoulder reel of three across the set while 3rd woman and 1st man dance half a right shoulder reel of four across the set with 4th couple. 3rd and 1st couples end crossing back to their own sides passing their partners by the left shoulder.
The final order is 5,3,4,1,2.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA Revised 2019 and 2024 (from a 2017 original))
Dance Notes
During the central figure four pairs of dancers will set to the same person in the far corners twice: 4th couple to partner, 5th man to 2nd woman, 2nd man to 5th woman and 1st man to 3rd woman. However as 1st woman and 3rd man dance twice around the centre they never set to each other.In the first tested version of this dance, 1st and 3rd couples only turned once in bars 5-8, but then had to turn once round in bars 27-28 to enter the reels. Some found the latter a bit of a challenge so the dance was changed to its present form with turning one and a half times in bars 5-8 which then only requires a half turn in bars 27-28. Thanks to Jacmel Dent for suggesting this change.
An even earlier, untested, version of this dance had the Dance to Each Corner and Set figure just for 12 bars with a more complex return to new places. After seeing Moira Turner's If You Ever Get There, it seemed wiser to have 16 bars of the figure which then puts the corners back in more sensible places leaving only the dancing couples to find each other again.
(Dance notes by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA June 2019)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagram
Dance Instruction Videos
A View Of The Valley - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
The title for this dance came after the dance and was inspired by the photograph I came across when looking for something to adorn the cover of a new dance book. However the zigzag nature of the central dance to each corner and set figure does evoke the switchback paths up and down mountains so it did seem to be appropriate.Recommended music: Suggested tune Dalrymple Jig by Jimmy Shand, Senior and/or Dave Provan's Fancy by John Renton; suitable recording Wake Up Ones (Neil Barron and his SDB: Sheffield Diamond Jubilee - The Third Sheaf Collection SCDs).
(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA June 2019)
Published in A View Of The Valley, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA.
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