Where The Snowflake Reposes
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
WHERE THE SNOWFLAKE REPOSES (J8x32) 3C (4C set) John Drewry Deeside Book 11- 8 1M sets advancing to 2L also 3L sets advancing to 2M and they ½ turn RH. 3L+1L+2M also 2L+1M+3M dance RH across
9-16 1L sets advancing to 2M also 3M sets advancing to 2L and they ½ turn LH. 2L+3s also 2M+1s dance LH across. 2s face out to end (3)2(1)
17-24 2s dance LSh reels of 3 on sides (2M down LSh to 1L, 2L up LSh to 3M)
25-32 3s and 1s set, 3s cross and cast to 3rd place while 1s ½ turn RH, dance up to top and cast to 2nd place (2s step up)
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Information
The title of this dance, Where The Snowflake Reposes, comes from the Lachin y Gair - Poem written by George Gordon Byron, (Lord Byron), British poet, peer, politician, and a leading figure in the Romantic movement."Lachin y Gair", often known as "Dark Lochnagar" or "Loch na Garr", was written in 1807 and discusses the author's childhood in north east Scotland, when he used to visit Lochnagar in Highland Aberdeenshire. It is perhaps one of the poet's most Scottish works, both in theme and sentiment. In the third and fourth stanzas, Byron mentions his Jacobite ancestors who haunt the area, and in the fifth stanza, Byron laments his exile from Scotland.
Lachin y Gair, first stanza:
In you let the minions of luxury rove;
Restore me the rocks, where the snow-flake reposes,
Though still they are sacred to freedom and love:
Yet, Caledonia, belov'd are thy mountains,
Round their white summits though elements war;
Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains,
I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr.
Where The Snowflake Reposes
Image copyright Mike Pennington under this Creative Commons Licence 2.0.
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