Double Scotch Reel does not seem to be Scotch and, as I reconstruct it, does not actually include any reels (heys). It is a trio contra (three facing three in long lines own the room) which I have found only in one source: the Gems of the Ball Room Call Book published by E. T. Root & Sons in Chicago in 1896. The Gems call book appears to have been published specifically as dance calls for quadrilles and contra dances to go with the tunes in a series of music books called Gems of the Ball Room also published by Root.
The contra dance figures in Gems have some noticeable variations from those found in New England manuals such as those of Elias Howe, which might indicate regional variations between the northeast and midwest or might be simple carelessness on the part of the editor. The language and format of the different figures makes it obvious that they were pulled from different sources, so I suspect that somewhere there is another source for Double Scotch Reel, and that the collator of dances for Gems copied it exactly.
I love Double Scotch Reel both because I am perennially fascinated by the possibilities of the trio dance form and because the figures of this dance, as I reconstruct them, flow together beautifully. There is a modern reconstruction with a rather different take on the dance which I will discuss briefly below.
Here are the figures in the exact language and with the number of bars given in Gems:
4b Swing right hand lady
4b Swing left hand lady
8b Ladies chain, right hand partner
8b Balance four with left hand partner
8b Six right and left
8b Forward all and pass through
and my own reconstruction, with extensive notes following:
Double Scotch Reel (40-bar trio contra dance)
Formation: long set of trios-facing-trios; each trio is one gentleman and two ladies
4b Gentlemen turn right diagonal ladies by right hand
4b Gentlemen turn left diagonal ladies by left hand
8b Gentlemen and right-hand partners do a ladies chain diagonally across the set
8b Gentlemen and left-hand partners cross hands and do an eight-slide galop across the set and the same back, gentlemen passing back to back
4b All cross over, passing opposite by right shoulder; cross left hands in trios (moulinets) and go halfway round
4b Same back to places
4b All forward and back
4b All pass through (passing right shoulders with opposites) to next trio
Performance notes
Double Scotch Reel has remarkably good flow between the various figures, but it needs substantial space to dance. At two points the trios are doing three-person moulinets up and down the set, and at one point pairs of dancers come rocketing diagonally out each side in an eight-slide galop. There needs to be generous space both between trios and between lines of trios if there are multiple lines in the ballroom.
Unlike two-facing-two contras, Double Scotch Reel does not work well transmuted into circle formation. It also is mildly awkward with reversed genders because of the ladies chain. Changing roles in that figure so that the gentlemen chain across to the opposite lady and back is possible but likely to startle dancers not accustomed to the role-reversal.
When crossing by right shoulders, the gentlemen should hang back slightly and the ladies move a bit further to make it easier to form the left-hand moulinet.
Small steps! Small steps! The eight-slide galop must be controlled, especially if there are multiple sets in the room, and at the end of the figure, when passing through to the next trio, it is critical not to get too close!
Other than in occasional galop sections, American contra dances at the end of the century would have been walked through rather than using any of the steps of the early nineteenth century.
Right- and left-hand ladies in each trio do different figures in Double Scotch Reel. If the dancers turn around individually at the ends of the set rather than turning as a trio, the two ladies will switch roles.
Music
Gems of the Ball Room was a running series of music books, and I suspect that one of them contains a tune for Double Scotch Reel. But the dance can be done to any suitable contra dance tune played with a 40-bar repeat structure.
Reconstruction notes
There is a fair amount of guesswork involved in this reconstruction. Here is the rationale for each of my choices:
"Swing right hand lady & swing left hand lady." One could argue that these turns should be with the gentleman's own trio partners, but later in the dance those two ladies are referred to as "right hand partner" and "left hand partner". Terminology in this source is inconsistent enough that this might just be carelessness, but similar mid- to late nineteenth-century trio dances such as Rustic Reel and Highland Reel tend to involve more significant interaction with the diagonally opposite dancers than with one's own partners, so I have followed the same style here.
"Balance four with left hand partner." This figure is made somewhat awkward by being given eight bars. While "balance four" suggests balancing forward and back in a circle to me, that is typically done twice in four bars. Doing it four consecutive times in eight bars seems a little repetitive. It could possibly be short for "balance and turn", with the dancers either turning their partners or possibly circling hands four once around during the second four bars. But it's a little odd that whoever wrote the dance didn't simply say "balance and turn".
After nearly a century of mixing, American contra dances of this era freely incorporate quadrille figures, leading me to another possibility: the eight-bar balance sequence that replaced the balance and turn in American quadrilles of the mid-nineteenth century and later. In mid-century manuals such as those of Thomas Hillgrove and Edward Ferrero, this is usually called, simply, "Balance", described by Ferrero as "Face your partner, giving the right hand, slide eight steps across the quadrille and back, passing to the right of each other, and returning on the same side." Hillgrove has the dancers join both hands, crossed (illustration), which I prefer.
Herman Strassburg, in his Call Book of Modern Quadrilles (Detroit, 1889), explicitly mentions that this figure is sometimes called "Balance Four" (as well as "Promenade"):
Promenade, often incorrectly called "Balance Four": Face partner, take both hands and do rapid sliding movements to opposite side and return.
Since this "Balance Four" (1) feels less repetitive than balancing forward and back four times in a circle, (2) has a terminology link from another midwestern manual that makes it feel more justifiable than a balance and turn, and (3) maintains symmetry with the preceding ladies chain in being a diagonal figure across the set, I've chosen this for my reconstruction. I do keep the element of the gentlemen passing back to back rather than keeping to the right-hand track, which in this formation would cause the ladies to pass back to back. Given the vagaries of late nineteenth-century ladies' fashions (and a dance whose popularity may span the bustle era), it seems safer to have the ladies on the outside.
"Six right and left." There are three possible broad interpretations of this figure: crossing over and back like a normal "right and left" but adjusted for six dancers instead of four; a grand chain figure for six dancers around the set; or reels of three along the sides of the set. The latter is the approach taken for the modern reconstruction, but I find it the least likely. While ever so often a reel is referred to as a right and left or a chain, it's unusual. Also, Double Scotch Reel follows (and looks very much like a deliberate variation on) a dance called Single Scotch Reel, which is a normal couple-facing-couple dance which also does not include any reels.
A grand chain (or "grand right and left") seems somewhat more likely, but the dancers are set up poorly for it at the end of the previous figure, regardless of how it is reconstructed, and it seems odd not to use the standard term.
Fortunately, there is another documentable figure for this call: the usual right and left adjusted for six dancers. This figure doesn't turn up very often, but it does appear in a couple of late nineteenth-century manuals in an extra quadrille figure. Strassburg, coming to my rescue yet again, describes it as "Right and left six (three couples passing across and back, as in right and left four)". It's not particularly clear to me how that's supposed to work in a quadrille formation, but it's quite easy in a trio contra. Cross over with your opposite passing right shoulders, turn with your trio by left hands, repeat back to places. Passing by right shoulders without actually taking hands is typical of late nineteenth-century quadrille practice; since I am once again borrowing a quadrille figure, I am borrowing the performance style with it.
"Forward all and pass through." Since this is given eight bars, which is completely ridiculous for simply passing through, I believe that it is simply a carelessly shortened version of the standard "Forward and back, forward and pass through" sequence.
Did anyone actually dance Double Scotch Reel?
There is some evidence that they did, though it can be a little hard to sort out, since the name "Double Scotch Reel" also seems to have been used for some sort of performance by two dancers.
The History of Clark County [Wisconsin], 1909, includes the following note:
The hall at Staffordville along about 1870 was frequently used for dances. It was nothing unusual for one hundred couples to attend. There were no "two steps" in those days, most of the dances were square dances, interspersed with the Virginia Reel, Munny Musk, Double Scotch Reel and Firemans Dance. (Chapter XXIV, 14 October, 1909)
Since the Double Scotch Reel appears in a list of contra dances of various sorts, I think it is most likely a reference to a contra dance rather than a performance piece.
Similarly, in the August 9, 1941, issue of the Toledo Blade (Toledo, Ohio), a reference to dance programs (cards) appears in the column "Among the Folks":
Far Away and Long Ago: Dance programs of old times including the one for the Thanksgiving ball given by Bowling Green [Ohio] firemen, Nov. 27, 1873, the program including 30 dances, among them the quadrille, waltz, schottische, double Scotch reel, moneymusk, opera reel, wild Irishman, grand gallopade, grand basket, and Virginia reel — Contributed by Mrs. Robert B. Curl.
And in the Eau Claire Leader, a Wisconsin newspaper, it turns up in the April 23, 1899, issue as part of the planned program for a dance party being held the next evening by "the Ladies of the Maccabees". Both this and the Bowling Green program again suggest to me a contra dance rather than a performance piece.
All three references are from the midwest, which fits nicely with a manual published in Chicago. Since I have not seen Double Scotch Reel in any northeastern publications, the dance may have been a regional favorite.
Modern Reconstruction
A reconstruction of Double Scotch Reel appears in The Contra Dance Book by Rickey Holden (Newark, 1956). Holden's book indiscriminately collects dances from both nineteenth and twentieth century sources and imposes the same basic mid-twentieth-century aesthetic and figure interpretations on all of them. It's a good record of 1950s practice but somewhat dubious as dance history. But it is very useful for showing whether a modern reconstruction was published before 1956, and in the case of Double Scotch Reel, there is none. The only listed source is Gems. This makes me wonder if it ever had any life as a dance in the twentieth century and whether Holden was recording a popular reconstruction or doing his own. Either way, I disagree with it on several points. But here, for comparison, is the Holden version:
4b Swing your right hand partner
4b Swing your left hand partner
8b Ladies chain with right hand partner
8b Promenade with left hand partner
8b Reels of three
8b Forward and back, forward and pass through
I've already given (above) my reasons for feeling that the first eight bars should be done with ladies of the facing trio rather than one's own partners.
The promenade is much like a very sedate version of my galop-across except that the couples actually circle each other rather than crossing back and forth on the same path.
Holden is very definite that the call "six right and left", quote, "properly means reels of three in this case", though he gives no hint as to his basis for this very definite statement. He does give a secondary interpretation similar to mine except that the dancers pass their opposite right shoulders (no hands) and then wheel around as a trio without taking hands, in accordance with modern cotnra dance practice. This is essentially a less graceful (and more space-consuming) version of my moulinets.
Holden also gives a variation for one lady with two gentlemen, which involves switching the ladies chain to be done with left-hand partner (so that the lady is to the right of the gentleman) and the promenade to be done with the right-hand partner. This would wreck the flow of my reconstruction, but it is quite workable with Holden's opening partner turns rather than diagonal-opposite turns.
Greetings from the Buffalo, New York area.....I am a member of the Amherst Victorian Dance Society (www.amherstvictoriandance.org) and follow this really nice website......Two years ago, when visiting the Milton, Vermont Milton Historical Society, my grand-daughter Taylor found a Ball Card from a Ball in Milton from 1876 at a hall called "The Rest" in the Checkerberry Section of Milton. On the dance card was "The Double Scotch". Thought you'd enjoy knowing that it actually was danced....Also on the dance card was The Plain Quadrille, Portland Fancy,Lancers, Tempest, Redowa Quadrille, Waltz Quadrille, Polka Quadrille, Contra, Fisher's Hornpipe, Hull's Victory, Mocking Bird Quadrille and waltz.....I tried to attach pictures of the Ball card booklet and dance list, but it wouldn't copy. If you'd like, I can email them to you using my email account. See my email address below...Mike Dowling, AVDS President
Mike Dowling, Society President
Posted by: michael dowling | January 08, 2020 at 08:22 PM