Niols’s Collection of (Mostly Unpublished) Scottish Country Dances

Et voilà !

Medley of 40-bar strathspey and 40-bar reel for four trios in a square set

Get the description of the dance as PDF.

See this dance in the Scottish Country Dance Database.

1–8
The persons in the middle of all trios dance left hands accross in the middle of the square and right hands accross back to original place while the other persons dance eight hands round to the left and back.
9–16
1st and 3rd trios dance a reel of four accross the set. In each trio, the person in the middle dances in tandem with the person on their right; the person in the middle has the lead to start, and the lead changes halfway in the reel. The tandems pass left shoulder to begin.
17–20
All trios dance anti-clockwise one place, finishing facing inside the square.
21–24
All trios dance «modified set and link for three»: in each trio, the three persons set; the person on the left dances in to finish facing out in the position at the right of the trio; the person in the middle and the person on the right cast off one place to finish in promenade hold in the positions at the left and in the middle of the trio.
25–40
All dance «Schiehallion reels» all round; the dancers in promenade hold sticking together as one unit.
Repeat as strathspey and then as reel, twice. All trios progress by one side of the square each time through as persons in trio get reordered: the persons on the left, in the middle and on the right becoming the persons on the right, on the left and in the middle respectively.
Devised by Violaine Eysseric during the teaching certificate class in weeks 1 and 2 of Summer School 2022 as a gift for Rachel Shankland and George Meikle .
The candidates devised dances and created “The Doonhamers' Book”. This dance is for twelve dancers as there were twelve of us; it also uses a lot of formations included in the dances of Unit 2 – even if not always in the usual way!