Scottish Country Dancing is the ballroom dancing native to Scotland. It came from the royal court and ultimately became danced by all social classes. Scottish Country dances are danced in sets, rather than solo or between a couple.
In fact, square dancing evolved from country dancing - probably Scottish or English.
Usually sets are made up of 3, 4 or 5 partners who dance as a team through the formations that make up the dance. Over the course of an evening, the dancers tend to dance with as many partners as possible resulting in a very social event. The dancing itself is very aerobic exercise, mental exercise (remembering what formations follows what formations), and a whole lot of fun. In Pensacola, FL, we dance every Tuesday evening from 7PM to 9PM. We post our meeting location and time, under Ethnic Dancing, in the Pensacola News Journal Weekender section which is included in the Friday paper.
Here are some slow loading pictures of events my wife and I attended.
... and yet, there's more ...
I borrowed the above animated example dance from JOIN A DANCE IN PROGRESS. Be sure to visit this site.
A Virtual Scottish country dance |
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| 01-02 | C1 set |
| 03-10 | C1 and C2 right hands across and left hands back |
| 11-14 | C1 cross by the right and cast while C2 step up on bars 13-14 |
| 15-16 | C1 cross by the right |
| 17-24 | C1 lead down the middle and back |
| 25-28 | C1 and C3 hands around once right |
| 29-32 | C2, C1 and C3 advance and retire |
| 33-36 | C1 and C3 hands around once left |
| 37-44 | C2 and C1 rights and lefts |
| Repeat, having passed a couple |
Here are examples of the jig, reel and strathspey music that we dance to.
Jig |
Reel |
Corn Rigs |
Mor a Cheannaich |