Reel of Five ~ Wilson#1
Reel of Five ~ Wilson#1 is an old Scottish Country Dance. It is a traditional dance with no clear origin. It was interpreted by Thomas Wilson in 1808. It is a dance for 5 people. In this dance the men are permuted by: 12 and the women by: 11. The minor set lasts 96 bars.
Oddly, the first written description that anyone can find of the Scottish "Reel of Five" was published in Thomas Wilson's An Analysis of Country Dancing, London, 1808. He presented two versions, one which he says is the "common" one, and the other which he devised himself. This is the one he says was commonly danced.
The Lady in the middle at B, heys with the Ladies at A C, then sets to them, she then sets to the Gentlemen at F D; then heys with the Gentlemen at F D, which brings one of them into the centre, so that they all progressively occupy every situation in the figure.
It is not clear to me, from this description, how the progression works. Fortunately he is clearer in a later publication The Complete System of English Country Dancing, published 1820.
The Lady in the middle at B heys with the Ladies at A C, then sets to them, then heys with the two Gentlemen at F D, and takes the place of the Gentleman at F, who will then occupy the centre: he then finishes the Reel by setting to the persons at F D then hey with the ladies at C A and leaves one of them in the centre, so that they all progressively occupy every situation in the Figure.
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| 1-8 | Center dancer passes top dancer right for a reel for three up and down |
| 9-16 | All set, center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one on the right |
| 17-24 | Center dancer passes right side dancer right for seven changes of a reel for three across |
| 25-32 | All set, new center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one at bottom |
| 33-40 | Center dancer passes bottom dancer right for seven changes of a reel for three up and down |
| 41-48 | All set, new center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one on the left |
| 49-56 | Center dancer passes left dancer right for seven changes of a reel for three across |
| 57-64 | All set, new center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one on the left |
| 65-72 | Center dancer passes top dancer right for seven changes of a reel for three up and down |
| 73-80 | All set, new center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one on the left |
| 81-88 | Center dancer passes right side dancer right for seven changes of a reel for three across |
| 89-96 | All set, new center dancer rotates (while setting) to face the two dancers s/he reeled with, ending facing one at bottom |
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.
If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=ReelOfFive-Wilson1
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation 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.
This website is copyright © 2021-2025 by George W. Williams V
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.