Niols’s Collection of (Mostly Unpublished) Scottish Country Dances

Spot on

32-bar reel for any number of couples in a circle around the room: women with their partner on their left.

Get the description of the dance as PDF.

See this dance in the Scottish Country Dance Database.

1–4
All advance and retire.
5–8
All advance and men retire while women stay in the middle, pulling back right shoulder to face out.
9–12
Women circle round to the left in the centre while men circle round to the left from places, giving hands if possible. All finish facing new partners.
13–16
All turn new partners by the left one and a half times to finish with men in the centre facing out and women on the outside facing in.
17–20
Women circle round to the right from places, giving hands if possible, while men circle round to the right in the centre. All finish facing original partners.
21–24
All dance dosido with their original partners.
25–28
All dance dosido with the person diagonally to the left.
29–32
All take promenade hold with original partners and dance round the circle anti-clockwise.
Repeat from new positions.
Devised by Shona Holmes in July 2022.
Our lovely Unit 2/3 teacher Rachel Shankland started every day with a fun warm up dance and often described our better moments in dancing and teaching as “Spot on”. Thus, this easy warm up dance was born; the circles in bars 9-12 and 17-20 create perfect spots. Thank you Rachel!