Highland Reel (country dance figure)

    •    Era: 1840s-1890s

While researching nineteenth-century Scottish reels, I was surprised to come across a dance labeled “Highland Reel” that was not the usual sort of Highland Reel, a simple mix of setting and heying for three or four dancers, but rather two slightly different versions of a progressive longways dance for trios of one lady between two gentlemen, formed as in the illustration at left (click to enlarge), taken from Elias Howe’s American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862). 

Ironically, I have only one, very late, Scottish source for the dance; most of the sources I’ve found it in are actually American!  One version made its way all the way to Australia and is found in an 1875 manual from that country.  That version, with the dancers’ genders reversed to one gentleman between two ladies, is still extant in the modern Scottish Country Dance community, where it may be found in the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society's Book 13.

Both versions of the Highland Reel in its country dance form have strong similarities to the so-called Swedish dances of the early 1820s, which were not actually Swedish but rather an English invention whose creator's pupils had seen “something similar in Scotland”, and to a non-progressive “Scotch reel” for six published in the early 19th century by London dancing master Thomas Wilson, who claimed to have composed it.  It seems likely that all of these dances had some common Scottish ancestry -- reels for six are mentioned as part of wedding traditions in The Popular Superstitions and Festive Amusements of the Highlanders of Scotland by William Grant Stewart (Edinburgh, 1823).

An English source from the early 1840s, entitled simply The Ball Room Annual, describes it as "a favourite dance", and the Australian manual notes more specifically that it was “a favourite Reel with His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh”, referring to Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, who was the second son of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert.  A naval officer and enthusiastic traveler, the duke was the first member of the royal family to visit Australia, in 1867, where he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.  

Two versions of the dance exist, with the difference being in only one of the four figures.  The earliest and most widely documented version (in the geographic sense) is found in (1) the aforementioned Ball Room Annual (London, c1844); (2) George S. Appleton's A Hand-Book for the Ball-Room (Philadelphia, 1849); (3) both the English compilation of miscellaneous useful facts Enquire Within Upon Everything (London, 1856) and its American reprint, Inquire Within For Anything You Want To Know (New York, 1859), and (4) the Australian manual, Roberts' Manual of Fashionable Dancing and Vade Mecum for the Ball-room, by George Robertson (Melbourne, 1875), which describes the dance as follows:

A lady between two gentlemen facing the opposite three; they all advance and retire, each lady then performs the reel with the gentleman on her right hand, and the opposite gentleman, to places; hands three round and back again; all six advance and retire; then lead through to the next trio, and continue the figure to the bottom of the room, which is the finale.

The other sources use minor variants of this wording, with the key phrase "and the opposite gentleman" in the description of the reel.  Appleton notes that it is "generally danced with the Highland Step", though he fails to provide any description of such a step.  The phrasing of the final instruction (“which is the finale”) is similar to that found in the other sources for this version ("to the bottom of the room", "to the end of the room", "till the bottom of the dance is reached") hints that this version might have been started by only the top six dancers in the line and continued until they reach the bottom, or until the original bottom couple has reached the top of the room and then danced down to their original places, as would have been the style of such a dance in the early nineteenth century, though modern social dancers will probably prefer to ignore this in favor of all beginning simultaneously, as is suggested by version two below.

Reconstruction (version one)
(formation: a column of trios of one lady between two gentlemen)
8b    Trios forward and back twice
8b    Each lady reels with the gentleman to her right and the gentleman opposite him
8b    Each lady hands three around and back with the gentlemen she just reeled with
8b    Trios forward and back, then forward and pass right shoulders through the opposite trio

The other version of the dance is:

All forward and back, each lady executing the reel with her right hand partner, and then with her left hand partner to place -- three hands round, and back again -- all forward and back, forward again and pass through opposite and face next three.

My sources for this version of the country-dance Highland Reel are all American, beginning with Charles Durang's The Fashionable Dancer’s Casket (Philadelphia, 1856), in which Durang acknowledges the normal four-person setting-and-heying sort of Highland Reel, noting that: “This merry dance can be performed by two couples; but, being a favorite, the admission of many is not unusual” and that “The figure may be formed with four in a line.”  He suggests adopting the Highland step, though he likewise neglects to specify what that might be.  His instructions are similar to those given above, which are taken from a trio of dance manuals by Elias Howe: The Pocket Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1858), Howe's Complete Ballroom Handbook (Boston, 1858), and American Dancing Master and Ball-Room Prompter (Boston, 1862) from which the above instructions are taken.  Finally, a nearly-identical set appears in the  Professor L.H. Elmwell’s Prompter’s Pocket Instruction Book (Boston, 1892). 

While nearly the same as version one, the description of those forming the reel as the “right hand partner” and “left hand partner” of the lady gives me pause.  I see no way to interpret those labels other than as the two gentlemen who are part of her own trio.  I think it possible that this is an error on the part of the American dancing masters, but it's a consistent error repeated in enough sources to warrant a separate reconstruction.  

The descriptions of this version all start with "All forward and back" (emphasis mine) and have "each" or "every" lady performing the reel with her partners, suggesting to me that all sets start simultaneously, as is strongly implied by Howe for dances formed in this way.

Reconstruction (version two)
(formation: a column of trios of one lady and two gentlemen; all start at once)
8b    Trios forward and back twice
8b    Each trio reels, with the lady turning to the right to start
8b    Each lady hands three round and back with her right-hand partner and the gentleman opposite him
8b    Trios forward and back, then forward and pass right shoulders through the opposite trio

Finally, my sole Scottish source, Allan's Reference Guide to the Ball-Room, by Mozart Allan (Glasgow, c1890-1885), is the only one which alters the gender makeup of the trios.  It is ambiguous about the method of the reel:

This dance is performed by the company arranging themselves in parties of three, a lady between two gentlemen, facing the opposite gentlemen [sic] between two ladies.
1. All advance and retire
2. Centre lady and gentleman turn to the right and reel to places
3. Three hands round and back
4. All six advance and retire, the top three passing the second three, and continue figure till the bottom of the dance is reached.

Given the lack of specificity about the reels, the only useful difference is that this source opens the opportunity, at least for the late nineteenth century, of performing the dance with equal numbers of men and women rather than a two-to-one surplus of men.  Either version given above would be a reasonable interpretation for the reel.

Reconstruction/performance notes
Of the options for the reel in the two versions, I strongly prefer the first (right-hand partner and opposite gentleman), which provides more interaction between different trios.

None of the sources specify that the trios begin by going forward and back twice, but this is necessary to fill out the music.  The "Swedish" dances for columns of trios in the 1820s, as well as their mid-century descendants, often start with going forward and back twice.

To “reel” in this case is to perform a hey for three.  In the first version, she starts by passing left shoulders with the gentleman diagonally to her right across the set.  In the second version, the lady turns to her right and passes right shoulders with her right-hand partner to begin the hey.

Neither dance specifies exactly what combinations perform the hands three round and back; I’ve chosen to make it with the lady’s right-hand partner and the gentleman opposite him in both cases.  In the first version, this parallels a figure found in the reel for six published by Thomas Wilson decades earlier, where the dancers both reel and circle on the ends of the set rather than along lines, albeit in the opposite order.  In the second version, it’s more problematic -- one could make a case for the lady circling with her own partners.  But that would leave the dancers with no real interaction with the other trios at all, which feels odd in a longways progressive dance, though almost exactly that combination of figures and lack of interaction does occur in the “Swedish” dances.  Circling on the ends, however, flows more smoothly from the reel figure in the second version.

In lieu of a more specific description of the “Highland step” suggested by Durang, Appleton, and the Enquire [Inquire] Within books (whose instructions were probably lifted directly from a dance manual), the dancers might employ the simple chassé traveling step (the modern “skip-change”) of the early nineteenth century, which was cited by Scottish dancing master Francis Peacock in 1805 under the name Kemshoole as the traveling step for a reel.

Music
To the best of my knowledge, “Highland Reel” is more a genre of Scottish dances and dance tunes than a particular piece of music.  The three sources by Howe specify the tune “McDonald’s Reel” for the dance.  Durang suggests adopting “the Highland step and music”, though not a specific tune.  The Enquire [Inquire] Within sources suggest that dancers use “music of three-part tune.” A three-part reel played for a thirty-two bar repeat structure (ABAC, AABC, etc.) would work, as would the tune “McDonald’s Reel” found in Howe’s School for the Clarionet (Boston, 1843), where it is a reel of two eight-bar strains, each marked to repeat (AABB), for a total of thirty-two bars of music.  In lieu of that particular tune, any reel of an appropriate length would work for the dance.

Comments

[Danby Carter]

Thanks, Susan.

[Susan de Guardiola]

I'll have one more post on this dance when I get a chance to write it up -- found another source with a different twist!