Couteraller's Rant ~ Williams

Couteraller's Rant ~ Williams Couteraller's Rant ~ RSCDS

Quoted from The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies (as transcribed by Jim Healy):

1^st pair joins cross right hands & 1^st woman turns under her own right arm, then they join cross left hands & the 1^st man turns under his own left arm, then the 1^st pair leads down & up between the 2^d pair & casts off, then leads down between the 3^d pair & casts up, then goes the figure of eight, the man on the womans side & the woman on the man's side, (setting en passant to each other) & then foots it into their own places

The full title is "Couteraller's Rant a Strathspey Reel".

As far as I know the modern method of Strathspey dancing is an invention of the (R)SCDS, so in the following I assume it takes four counts (1 bar of strathspey) to do a setting set, etc.

The Register of Dances provides no music. I assume it consists of four bar phrases, but that leaves the down the middle and up lying across a phrase boundary. Perhaps the turning under section takes more time? (the RSCDS adds some setting which isn't called for in the instruction. But if we do that, then the lead down and cast back doesn't fill out it's phrase either, so throw in a lead up through 2s and cast back? It all seems too much of a stretch.

Since the 1s are casting up before the half figure eight, I assume it will be natural to have the figure of eight go up too. But the original is ambiguous on this point.

Neither the 2s nor 3s do anything in this dance. The 3s are posts, the 2s lead up and then are posts. If I wanted to dance this, I'd first make it a duple minor, and then let the 2s turn under the arms as well. They might also do a double half figure eight and then cross and set just as the 1s do.

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