strathspey@strathspey.org:40467

Rosemary Coupe

Lead - Right hands or Nearer Hands

Jan. 28, 2005, 10:50 p.m. (Message 40467, in reply to message 40444)

Pat wrote,

I've been told, but have no written source to which I can refer, that the
"right hand in right" lead appeared in the 19th century.  Hmmm, it occurs to
me that I should put this question to my Regency friend.  Stay tuned.

--That seems likely. One figure in which the right-hand lead is a real
advantage is "lead down the middle and up" because the hands don't need to
change when the couple turn round. When it first appeared, that figure seems
to have been a progressive one: the leading couple went down the middle and
up, then cast off one place (as in "Kendall's Hornpipe" today). And in going
down, they faced one another and danced with something like a slip step;
some writers refer to "galloping" down the middle.
So both hands would be taken for this figure.

Rosemary