Dos-à-dos in Scottish Country Dancing
The dance term Dos-à-dos is usually pronounced in the anglicized form, "dozey-doe", and is sometimes spelt DoSiDo. It is similar to Advance and retire except that the two Dancers Pass each other, Giving right shoulders, Pass Back-to-back (whence the French name for the Figure) and Give left shoulders as they Dance backwards to where they Started from. The term, Back-to-back, is sometimes used as a synonym (it is the official RSCDS term); however, it is preferable to limit Back-to-back to specifying the relative Positions of two Dancers at a particular point within any Figure, such as the Strathspey poussette and, indeed, Dos-à-dos itself, where this Positioning arises halfway through.When two or more pairs of dancers perform the Figure, as in The Iona Cross, they do not Take hands in line as they Dance forwards and backwards.
In a derivative form for the Celtic brooch set (and also, in principle, for the Triangular set), three Dancers are involved; all three Advance, Giving right shoulders, to the Centre of The set, Pass back to back and Give left shoulders as they Dance backwards to their Starting Positions. In an alternative derivative form for the Celtic brooch set, the three Dancers perform the Figure in reverse (but still Travelling clockwise); they Retire, Giving left shoulders, to the Centre of The set, Pass face to face and Give right shoulders as they Dance forwards to their Starting Positions.
In Scottish Country Dancing, four bars are normally allocated for this Figure.
In the Reverse dos-à-dos, the two Dancers Pass each other Giving left shoulders to Start; this is a particularly rare form which occurs in bars 13-16 and 29-32 of Janet's Delight.
Here are examples of those Scottish Country Dances for which we have instructions on this site and in which the term, Dos-à-dos, either appears explicitly or is implied; note that for a common term these will be a small selection; for a rare term, these may be all that exist:
Callanish
Circle Of Cheer
Clachan
Ellwyn's Fairy Glen
Grant's Reel
Joie De Vivre
Laird O' Thrums
Miss Nancy Arnott
Off To Speyside
Scottish Castle
Dance Video Clip Which Demonstrates Dos-à-dos
Dos-à-dos Video ClipLinks To Pages Related To 'Travelling'
FiguresAdditional search terms: DoSiDo, Do-Si-Do, Dosey Doe.
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