I've been teaching various versions of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century reel for nine called the Country Bumpkin for a number of years. Jumping forward to the late nineteenth century, this reel for nine is clearly akin to the Bumpkin, though it's simply called "Reel of Nine" in David Anderson's The New, Enlarged, and Complete Ball-Room Guide, which was published in Dundee, Scotland, in the mid-1880s. This is the only source I have for the dance.
The nine dancers required should have a two-thirds majority of either ladies or gentlemen; three of one and six of the other. Anderson considered three gentlemen and six ladies to be the "more suitable" combination. The formation is the "tic-tac-toe" formation of three rows of three dancers each, the odd gender in the center. For purposes of this description, I'm going to default to the three gents/six ladies arrangement. Here's what the set will look like:
L G L
L G L
L G L
The instructions are deceptively simple: reel for three across the set, set and turn both partners, reel at the corners while the other six dancers hands three around and back, set and turn both partners, and repeat all this "around the square", followed by a final hands eight around to the left while the center dancer sets. All of this takes eight bars of music played seventeen times.
Easy, right?
Actually, no. While the individual figures are easy, making the whole thing work in practice is kind of tricky and turned out to require plenty of extrapolation and interpretation.
Let's start by numbering our dancers:
Top of set
L1 G1 L4
L2 G2 L5
L3 G3 L6
Each gentleman's "first" partner (a completely arbitrary designation) is the lady to his right when facing the top of the set, and his "second" is the lady to his left.
My final reconstruction:
8b Introduction; honors to partners
8b All reel across the set, starting by gents passing left shoulders with their first partners (L4-5-6)
8b Gents set and turn their first partners (L4-5-6) then set and turn their second partners (L1-2-3)
8b Center gent (G2) reels with L6 and L1, starting by passing left shoulders with L6
Meanwhile: G1-L4-L5 and G3-L2-L3 hands three around and back
8b Gents set and turn their first partners then their second as before
8b All reel up and down the set (L1-2-3, G1-2-3, L 4-5-6), starting with the center row (L2-G5-L5) passing right shoulders with the back row (L3-G3-L6)
8b Gents set and turn their second partners (L1-2-3) then their first partners (L4-5-6).
8b Center gent (G2) reels with L3 and L4, starting by passing left shoulders with L3
Meanwhile: G1-L1-L2 and G3-L5-L6 hands three around and back
8b Gents set and turn their second partners then their first as before
8b All reel across the set, starting by gents passing left shoulders with their second partners (L1-2-3)
8b Gents set and turn their second partners then their first as before
8b Center gent (G2) reels with L1 and L6, starting by passing left shoulders with L1
Meanwhile: G1-L4-L5 and G3-L2-L3 hands three around and back
8b Gents set and turn their second partners then their first as before
8b All reel up and down the set (L1-2-3, G1-2-3, L 4-5-6), starting with the center row (L2-G5-L5) passing right shoulders with the front row (L1-G1-L4)
8b Gents set and turn their first partners (L4-5-6) then their second (L1-2-3)
8b Center gent (G2) reels with L3 and L4, starting by passing left shoulders with L4
Meanwhile: G1-L1-L2 and G3-L5-L6 hands three around and back
8b Gents set and turn their first partners then their second as before
8b Eight outside dancers open into a circle of eight and circle completely around to the left
Meanwhile: center gent (G2) sets for eight measures
Steps
Don't even try dream of through this one. Use a kemshóole or chassé step for the reels and turns. This is not a Regency-era dance, and certainly not a French quadrille, so please leave out the jeté-assemblé combinations. Make the reels loop generously to use the full eight measures.
I would recommend a simple pas de basque right and left for most of the setting, since the dancers are in formation. The center gentleman in the final eight measures can get creative. Among the few setting steps for reels that Anderson describes, one is the same as Peacock's seby-trast, though Anderson does not give it a name, so that would be an extremely well-supported choice.
Performance notes
The partner turns are two-hand turns, and are fast -- only two measures each. The trios circling around and back move to the left first, then back to the right.
The center gentleman's reel is different every time, while other dancers only join in when the reels are on the straight lines rather than on the diagonals. Otherwise, they circle with their closest two dancers not in the reel. The reels periodically change lead shoulders, and the center dancer periodically changes which of his partners he turns first. There is no way to make every reel flow gracefully for every dancer, so I've prioritized what works best for the center dancer, since that person has the most complex role overall.
Here's the short version of the switches and how to remember them:
1. The starting direction for the center dancer's reel moves clockwise around the set, one dancer at a time.
2. Mixed-gender reels (gentleman and two ladies) start by passing left shoulders. Same-gender reels (three ladies or three gentlemen) start by passing right shoulders. The right shoulder reels are relatively easy to remember because they are the ones that run up and down the set. Flowing into a left shoulder reel on those would be extremely awkward for the center gentleman. Do not try to memorize the order of the starting shoulder (left-left-right-left-left-left-right-left); it'll just drive you crazy. Just think either "same gender, right shoulders" or "up and down, right shoulders".
3. After each time the reels go up and down and start by passing right shoulders, the gentleman then switches which partner he sets to first.
I understand that my readers are now wailing in horror at all these switches -- especially people who learned one of the earlier versions of this reconstruction, which had slightly different patterns -- but in each case, the starting shoulder for the reel or the starting partner for the turn is chosen because it flows the best with the following figure for the center dancer. Remember: changes happen on or after the up-and-down reels. Take one place in the reel and stick to that place for awhile, rather than switching around. Walk through it until you have it memorized. It does work. And if someone starts a reel with the wrong shoulder, remember that not colliding takes priority!
On the final set and turn, the front and back gentlemen should open up, keeping one hand with the lady they have just turned and reaching out their free hand for their other partner. The three ladies on the right (L4-5-6) should take hands in a trio and be ready to join in. The lady at center left (L2) has the most awkward transition; she needs to aim for the hand of her front neighbor lady (L1) to join the circle and the back lady (L3) needs to be alert to take her free hand as they begin to circle. Once again, this just takes some practice to make it work smoothly.
Reconstruction notes
I started out thinking this would be an easy dance to reconstruct and perform. I was rapidly disabused of that notion by my increasingly irritable group of test dancers. Reels starting left shoulder work beautifully, until they don't. Reels starting right shoulder are less aesthetic, except when they aren't. Turn first partners first, until that has unpleasant effects on the next reel, then don't.
The only thing that was straightforward was the timing, since Anderson specified eight measures for each figure. That was about the only thing he specified. So I had to make some choices, which I've changed a couple of times since I started teaching this reel. My apologies to dancers who got an earlier version of this reel and now are going to have to switch!
Here are some of the reconstruction choices, and the logic behind them:
1. The instructions for the sets and turns were "All set and turn both partners, one after the other" the first time and "All set and turn both partners" the second. Did this mean each gentleman's own two partners or the two people he had just done a reel with? The typical Bumpkin figure, which puts the set-and-turn part before the reel, has the gentleman setting/turning and reeling with the same two ladies each time, and one could make a reasonable case on that basis for doing the same. But the language does not say "set and turn the two people you just reeled with" or anything similar. It sticks with "both partners". So I left it at each gentleman's actual partners.
2. What happens when the reels are up and down the set. That the reels even ever go up and down the set is a choice as well, but I can think of no way to interpret "these movements are repeated round the whole square" with music for eight repeats of sixteen bars (reel, set, and turn) other than having the center dancer literally change his direction of motion on each reel, moving "around the square" to start the reel with each dancer in turn. But when the three gentlemen are reeling with each other, what are the ladies to do? Circle or reel? With the ladies in straight lines, circling was decidedly awkward, so my test dancers and I felt that it was much better if the ladies also reeled.
3. The starting shoulder on the reels. I really wanted this to be all left-shoulder starts or all right-shoulder starts. But that just doesn't work consistently. Coming out of a two-hand turn clockwise, which is the standard turn, starting the next reel with the left shoulder makes the turn-into-reel into a nice, continuous weaving pattern. But given that the line of the reel keeps moving clockwise around the set and the partner turns do not, the two figures eventually become perpendicular (set and turn across, reel up and down the set), and at that point the left-shoulder reel requires too sharp a turn to get into. So on those two reels, don't force it; just go with right shoulders.
4. Which partner is turned first. There is no indication that this switches, but to make the reels work gracefully, it really needs to. With fast turns like these, the center gentleman comes out of the second turn with a lot of momentum aiming him back toward the first person he turned. It is much easier if the person he starts the reel with is more-or-less across the set instead of at an acute angle back the way he came. That's a problem on the second corner reel and the fourth corner reel, the ones right after those infamous up-and-down reels. Nothing can entirely save those two reels, but switch the starting partner after each of them and the momentum/direction-of-travel problem does go away for all the others.
5. Which direction the reel begins. I've arbitrarily started the reel with the gentlemen turning to their partner on the right for the first reel. The dance actually works just as well started in the opposite direction, with gentlemen turning toward their partner on the left for the first reel and setting and turning that partner first. Changes of shoulder and who-is-set-and-turned-first still happen on the up-and-down reels.
Music
With an eight-bar introduction added, this reel requires 8b + (16b x 8) + 8b, or, more simply, 16b x 9, or 144 bars. The only musical instruction is "Reel Time", so any reel will do. In the absence of live musicians, I am currently using "The Cuckoo's Nest" recording from the CD Dance and Danceability. I am not a huge fan of that CD in general, but this particular track is a very nice fiddle-and-piano combination that is a good tempo and exactly the right length.
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