The Highland Schottische

How The Highland Schottische is danced

1. Hop on the inside foot and point the outside foot in the line of dance, hop again and bring the outside foot behind the inside calf. Hop and point the outside foot forward again, hop and bring it in front of the inside shin.
2. Still facing your partner: step the outside foot in the line of dance, close the inside foot to it, step the outside foot again, then hop on it bringing the inside foot behind the calf.
3. Repeat both of the above with opposite footwork and direction.
4. Repeat the second bar, then repeat it again with opposite footwork and direction.
5. Moving forward in the line of dance and turning clockwise, take four step-hops turning around each other. Repeat the dance from the beginning.

You do not need to memorise any of this. Garry walks the room through every dance before the music starts and keeps calling all the way through it — the steps are here because some people like to read ahead, not because anybody is expected to arrive knowing them.

What it needs, and who it suits

Formation

Couples round the room, but unlike the other couple dances here the interest is in the feet rather than the travelling. Progression is gentle; the footwork is the dance.

Music

Schottische rhythm — four-four, but with a lilt and a lift on the fourth beat that tells your feet when to hop. Slower than a reel and quite deliberately so.

The room it needs

Modest. It stays largely on the spot with a gentle progression, so it suits a room where floor space is at a premium and a Strip the Willow would be a squeeze.

For beginners

The hardest on this list, and the one where the caller's advice matters most: the hops are optional. Walk the pattern without them and it still works, still looks right, and nobody watching will know.

Where it falls in the night

Mid to late, and to a room that is enjoying itself and willing to try something with actual steps in it. It is not a warm-up dance and it is not one to call cold.

What usually goes wrong

• Trying to master the hops on the first pass. Get the direction and the pattern first; add the hops on the second or third time through, or leave them out entirely.
• Rushing. The schottische lilt is slower than it feels like it should be, and hurrying the step-close-step turns it into an entirely different dance.
• Losing the line of dance. Because it stays largely on the spot it is easy to drift round to face the wrong way, and then the travelling section goes into the oncoming traffic.

Where it comes from

The schottische arrived in Britain in the nineteenth century as a continental round dance — the name means 'Scottish' in German, which is a good deal more confusing than it is helpful. The Highland version adds the hop-steps and the setting that make it recognisably its own thing.