Fitting The Steps To The Music

These seven steps are defined with either two or four separate movements to be fitted to each bar of music: Slip step and Step up or down require two movements; all others require four.

Reels, Hornpipes and Strathspeys are mostly in ⁴⁄₄ tempo (though some are in ²⁄₄ tempo with the same number of bars rather than crochets to the minute) and Jigs are in ⁶⁄₈ tempo (apart from those in ⁹⁄₈ tempo which are suitable only for a dance such as Strip the Willow requiring three equal movements to the bar). All are readily divided into two, equal, half bars (Jigs especially so) and so Step up or down, in all tempi, and Slip step, in all tempi except Strathspey, of course, are easily accommodated.

The music for Reels, Hornpipes and Strathspeys is also readily divided into four, equal, quarter bars and so Skip change, Pas-de-basque, the Strathspey travelling step, the Strathspey setting step and the Highland schottische setting step are equally easily accommodated.

The music for Jigs is less helpful; the 3 quaver, half bars do not readily accommodate two equal movements. The musically informed tell us that the first and third movements of Skip change and Pas-de-basque in a Jig are to be allocated two quavers each with the second and fourth having only one each; perhaps, as dancers, we intuitively Phrase the movements within the bar this way. Whether we actually do divide the Jig tempo bar into ¹⁄₃+¹⁄₆ + ¹⁄₃+¹⁄₆ or 4x¹⁄₄ matters very little; indeed, many competent dancers will admit that they cannot distinguish the musical time signatures of Reels and Jigs. The crucially important point is to begin each dance step at the beginning of the bar.

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