The Bleu Ribbon ~ RSCDS
The Bleu Ribbon ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Castle Menzies in 1749 and published in The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies, Scotland. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1932 and published in RSCDS Book 8. It is R8×40 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. R40.
Quoted from The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies (as transcribed by Jim Healy):
1st man goes figure eight round the 2d man & the 3d woman the 1st woman does the same round the 2d woman & 3d man then the 1st pair leads forward to the 2d pair then leads up & casts off, then does the same below and casts up; then the 1st woman goes round the 2d man & turns her partner, who was doing the same round the 3rd woman then she goes round the 2d woman then the 1st pair leads out att the sides
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.
The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, cast, lead, figure eight, hey, lead and cast (and probably others).
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=TheBleuRibbon-RSCDS
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1932 by RSCDS. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.