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REELS:
DANCE DATA
There are in excess of 20,000 Scottish country dances which have been published in some form, and many
more still ‘in the pipeline’. The RSCDS has published or adopted around 10% of these, many of which can
be seen on any dance programme anywhere in the world.
With this number of dances, the question is always: How do you learn them all?
And the answer is: You don’t! You learn the formations from which they are built and then you need only
remember the sequence for any particular named dance.
As an aide-memoire on the dance floor, cribs have been devised, and with the internet, these and videos of
demonstrations, are freely available to all.
2025-26 CORE LIST
The Branch adopted a ‘Core List of Dances’ in 2015 - these are dances which are danced a lot in our area, and ones which are
hopefully fairly familiar to most of us and which we enjoy dancing; the aim is that eventually we shall all get to know these dances
sufficiently well that they require only a short recap.
Class teachers will be teaching and including these dances on a regular basis so they will become familiar, and dancers should not
feel concerned if they do not ‘Know’ every dance on The List. This list, with associated links for cribs and videos will be available on
the website, as now, for those who are interested, and who do want to study the cribs, videos, etc., but there is no pressure on
anyone; the list is not prescriptive and, during the year you will be taught many other dances as well, so inclusion or otherwise on
the List is not an important issue for class members. They will be used as a basis for drawing up Peterborough social dance
programmes (e.g. End-of-Term and Summer Socials) as well as the Tea Dances and Annual Dance programmes.
Blooms of Bon Accord
Caddam Wood
The Highland Rambler
Mairi's Wedding
Nottingham Lace
The Piper & the Penguin
A Reel For Alice
Shiftin' Bobbins
Staircase in Styria
A Trip to Bavaria
JIGS:
Farewell to Balfour Road
The Galloping Carousel
Inchmickery
MacLeod’s Fancy
Pelorus Jack
STRATHSPEYS:
Butterscotch and Honey
City of Belfast
The Dream Catcher
The Garry Strathspey
Macdonald of the Isles
The Minister on the Loch
We have changed the way in which the List will be updated each year. The current list, plus any suggestions from members, will
be voted upon to reduce the number to 12-13, to which will then be added the 7-8 Dances of the Month from the year just ending,
to get a new list of 20 dances.
Please do let the Committee know, as the year progresses, if you wish to suggest any changes.
Further information on these dances can be found at https://my.strathspey.org/dd/list/60285/
where there are cribs and links to videos for each dance.
Which are the most ‘popular’ dances, i.e. which dances appear most often on social programmes?
In
the
East
Midlands,
in
the
12
months
up
to
the
end
of
June
2024,
Farewell
to
Balfour
Road
hit
the
top
spot
appearing
on
13
out
of
34
programmes,
well
clear
of
Mairi’s
Wedding
(10
times),
The
Falls
of
Rogie
and
The
Highland Rambler
, which both appeared 9 times.
The
top
strathspey
was
The
Belle
of
Bon
Accord
(8)
with
other
popular
shorter
strathspeys
being
Glengarry
Homestead
,
Miss
Eleanor
and
The
Water
of
Leith
(all
7),
and
The
Dream
Catcher
,
Macdonald
of
the
Isles
and
The
Minister
on
the
Loch
(all
6).
There
were
three
8x32
strathspeys,
each
appearing
5
times
-
Kilkenny
Castle
,
Midsummer
Common
and
Sands
of
Morar
.
Of
the
newer
RSCDS-adopted
dances,
Toast
to
the
Mousies
(8)
has
become
very
popular,
also
The
Scallywag
(7),
and
Chased
Lovers
and
The
Galloping
Carousel
(both
4)
have
established themselves.
Some
long-standing
favourites,
such
as
Swiss
Lassie
,
Ian
Powrie's
Farewell
to
Auchterarder
,
and
A
Trip
to
Bavaria
, have fallen back, appearing at most only once during the year.
For more information on this ‘League Table’ of Scottish Dances see The Sunday Class website.
