The Threesome Reel ~ RSCDS
The Threesome Reel ~ RSCDS is a Scottish Country Dance. It is a traditional dance with no clear origin. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1930 and published in RSCDS Book 6. It is M(S48+R48) 3P/3P, a dance for 3 people (in trios). R96.
RSCDS Book 6 claims this was "collected in Perthshire and Angus."
This is not the traditional version recorded by the Fletts, nor the versions found in Wilson, 1808.
Often the center dancer holds a ribbon in each hand, with the side dancers holding the ribbon rather than the center dancer's hands.
The RSCDS instructions say that after the circling motion the dancers end where they started. All the example videos show the dancers advancing, and then only circling half, facing the opposite direction and on opposite sides of the center dancer. The dance repeats advancing in the back where they came from and turning.
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.
| Strathspey | 1-8 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home |
| 9-24 | Set four times with highland steps | |
| 25-32 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home | |
| 33-48 | Set four times with highland steps | |
| 49-56 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home | |
| 57-72 | Set four times with highland steps | |
| Reel | 1-8 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home |
| 9-24 | Set four times with highland steps | |
| 25-32 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home | |
| 33-48 | Set four times with highland steps | |
| 49-56 | Left dancer moves out and makes an arch with center dancer, left dancer circle clockwise, right counter (under the arch), center turns in place counter clockwise, all ending back home | |
| 57-72 | Set four times with highland steps |
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=TheThreesomeReel-RSCDS
I do not have a publication date for the dance and do not know whether it is under copyright or not. The interpretation is copyright © 1930 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 © 2021-2025 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.