Reel of Six
Reel of Six is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was published by W. Smyth in 1830 in A Pocket Companion for Young Ladies and Gentlemen Containing Directions for the Performance of Quadrilles, Scotch, English, Irish, French, and Spanish Country Dances, Reels, &c.. It is a dance for 6 people. In this dance the men are permuted by: 111 and the women by: 123. The dance lasts 32 bars.
Smyth writes:
Place the Ladies the same as in the Reel of Five, and two Gentlemen in the centre. The Gentlemen with the first and third Ladies form a reel of four, during which, and when the two Ladies are crossing together, the other two Ladies cross over and recross; when the first two Ladies are in the middle, all set, the Gentlemen turning to the Ladies alternately. They then reel with the other two Ladies, and set as before.
A year later, the Lowe brothers published a very similar version:
(Places the same as in the Reel of Five, only two Gentlemen in the middle.) The Gentlemen, with two of the Ladies, form a reel of four, during which, and when the two Ladies are close together in the middle, the other two Ladies cross over, and re-cross, when the first two Ladies are in the middle again; all set, the Gentlemen turning to the Ladies alternately; then then reel with the other Ladies.
About 40 years later, J.F. Wallace's The Excelsior Manual of Dancing has a somewhat clearer description:
REEL OF SIX
1. Ladies stand, one at top of room, one at bottom, one at each side, and two gentlemen in the centre. The gentlemen with the top and bottom ladies dance Reel of four; when the ladies top and bottom are coming near the centre, the side ladies cross over and recross, when the top and bottom are about to meet again. 8 2. All set, the gentlemen turn to the ladies alternately, 8
Thomas Wilson was the first to publish a threesome, foursome and reel of five, and he did publish two reels of six, but says that he devised them both. Their formation was more like three couple longways dances than this diamond.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| 1-8 | Center two dancers pass the dancer they face right to start reels of four up and down, with the two inactive dancers crossing between them when they can |
| 9-16 | All set, center dancers rotate (while setting) to face all the outer dancers, ending facing left or right |
| 17-24 | Center two dancers pass the dancer they face right to start reels of four across, with the two inactive dancers crossing between them when they can |
| 25-32 | All set, center dancers rotate (while setting) to face all the outer dancers, ending facing left or right |
If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.
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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2025 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.