Reel of Six ~ Wilson#1

Reel of Six ~ Wilson#1 is an old Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Thomas Wilson in 1808 and published in An Analysis of Country Dancing. It was interpreted by George Williams in 2025. It is a 3 Couple Longways dance with the 1s, 3s improper. The minor set lasts 32 bars.

This is one of Thomas Wilson's "New Reels" (which means he devised them). For the threesome, foursome and fivesome reels he also provides a traditional version, but he does not do so for the reel of six.

Wilson published the same reel in 1820, and his description there is clearer so I reproduce the later text.

Wilson writes:

REEL OF SIX.

To be danced by three Ladies and three Gentlemen.

The Gentlemen and Lady at A B C, join hands, the Ladies and Gentleman at D E F join hands, and all meet at a b c and foot it to each other, then return to their original places and foot again; the Lady at B then strikes the hey with the Lady at F and Gentleman at C; the Gentleman at E at the same time strikes the hey with the Lady at D and Gentleman at A; they then hands three round and back, top and bottom, then hey top and bottom, and the Reel is complete.

(Wilson's set had the lines of three at top and bottom, I have rotated the set so that the lines are on the sides, more in keeping with normal longways sets).

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.

The dances of George Williams (including interpretations like this one) are licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike: CC BY-NC-SA license.
An online description of the dance may be found here.

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=ReelOfSix-Wilson1

A1	1-8	Lines of three take hands, advance, set, retire, and set
A2	1-8	Center two dancers pass 2nd corner right, reel of three at ends
B1	1-4	Circle three left on the sides...
	5-8	...and back to the right
B2	1-8	Center dancers pass dancers on their right by the right, reels of three on the sides