strathspey@strathspey.org:40456

Richard Goss

"quick" R&L

Jan. 28, 2005, 3:08 p.m. (Message 40456, in reply to message 40440)

If one checks the original editions of the RSCDS books one will find
that our figure was not immediately fixed in the present form. For
rights and lefts in one dance, it says in a footnote that hands are
optional. In other words our present form is an amalgam of two earlier
forms - chain of 4 and a circular hey. Who knows but these might have
earlier been one without hands until someone decided to add the hands.
On the other hand, in MacKenzie, the illustration for reels of 3 and 4
shows the dancers taking hands in passing?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿?¿