The Eightsome Reel

The Eightsome Reel is a Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by Earl of Dunmore in about 1870, Scotland. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1925 and published in RSCDS Book 2. It is R40+8×R48+R40 Square, a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. R464.

My copy of Book 2 claims this was devised by the Earl of Dunmore, but later sources seem unsure. The The Thistle has an article on its origins.

The RSCDS numbers couples clockwise (while modern square dance numbers them counter clockwise).

Arthur Miller, Leeds, 1900 writes:

  1. All join hands in circle, and turn round to places.
  2. Gentlemen take hold of partner's hand, and ladies give hands across and round, gentlemen give left hands across and back to places.
  3. All set and turn partners.
  4. Grand chain

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.

Intro
 
1-4Circle eight left...
5-8...and back to the right
9-12Ladies, with partners in their left hands, right hands across
13-16Ladies drop hands, turn half with partner until men are in the center, men left hands across (with partners in their right hands)
17-20Set twice to partner
21-24Partner two hand turn
25-40Face partner, grand chain back to places
Figure-Lady
 
1-8$1 Lady to the center where she sets as others circle left seven and back
9-12$1 Lady set to partner and two hand turn him
13-16$1 Lady set to opposite man and two hand turn him
17-24$1 Lady passes partner left to start a reel of three with him and her opposite
25-32$1 Lady to the center where she sets as others circle left seven and back
33-36$1 Lady set to her corner and two hand turn him
37-40$1 Lady set to the remaining man and two hand turn him
41-48$1 Lady passes corner left to start a reel of three with him and the opposite man
Figure-Lady
Figure-Lady
Figure-Lady
Figure-Man
 
1-8$1 Man to the center where he sets as others circle left seven and back
9-12$1 Man set to partner and two hand turn her
13-16$1 Man set to opposite man and two hand turn her
17-24$1 Man passes partner left to start a reel of three with her and his opposite lady
25-32$1 Man to the center where he sets as others circle left seven and back
33-36$1 Man set to $4 lady and two hand turn her
37-40$1 Man set to the remaining lady and two hand turn her
41-48$1 Man passes $4 lady left to start a reel of three with her and the opposite lady
Figure-Man
Figure-Man
Figure-Man
Intro

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=TheEightsomeReel

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The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 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
Creative Commons License 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.