The Eights A national dance Th e Eightsome Reel is a fu sion of opposites . En shrined as one o f th e national dances of Scotland, it is o f relatively recent origin . It gives a perfect opportunity for th e individual di spl ay o f dan cin g prowe ss, contained within a communal dance. It is a dance of the ordin ary peopl e, of high society, and of th e Scotti sh regiments.
The quadrille meets the reel Th e Eightsome is root ed partl y in th e poli shed French quadrille and partly in th e nati ve Scot s reel. Its progenitor, Th e Reel of Eight, was a quadrille in form and reel in name onl y Th e 'reel' co mponent of th e Eightso me grew as th e dance deve loped , with th e quadrill e co mpo nent, th e choru s fi gure, surviving to 'frame' th e reel and give it an ari stocrati c elega nce and more of a social sp irit . Th e main influ ence in th e developm ent of th e dance wa s a romantic Scotti sh nati onali sm, emanatin g from th e upper cl asses, in whi ch th e music, dancing and culture o f the Highlands ca me to stand fo r t he spirit o f Scot land itself.
Historical coincidence An interestin g co incidence of dance hi story is t hat th e ree l and th e quadrille both beca me fashionabl e at th e same time. Earl y nineteenth -ce ntury writers menti o n 'qu adrill e-m ani a' hitting th e co untry. Quadrilles beca me popular wh en t he end of the Napo leonic Wars allowed peopl e - and dances - t o co me and go freel y across th e Ch ann el o nce mo re. Dancing masters ru shed to Pari s, and hurried home aga in to spread th e new quadri ll e gospel.
The romance of the reel In a broad se nse, re els owed th eir popul arity to the Romantic spirit of the age and its new interest in native traditions of mu sic and dance. A definite fa ctos in the widespread use of ree l music for social danci ng o f all kinds was th e presence in Alm ack's London assembly roo ms of th e band with th eir powerfull y Gows' express ive mu sic. Whil e some dancing masters crossed th e Channel t o Pari s to lea rn quadrilles, oth ers drove post -haste to Ed inburgh to lea rn reels.
The earlier Reel of Eight The Reel of Eight, later incorporat ed into The Eightsome Reel, co nsisted of quadrill e fi gures probabl y danced to reel mu sic. In two sources separat ed by almost a cen tury, Co ntre- Da nses a Paris 18 18, and Moza rt
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All an's Ballroom Guide, c. 19 10, it has th e same four fi gures: eight hands round; first ladi es th en men giving hands across in th e middle, their other hand joined with th eir partner; set and turn partn ers; and grand chain . Thi s sequence is familiar, of co urse, as th e opening and cl os ing frame of th e modern Eightsome Reel.
Caledonian Quadrilles Th e prestige of quadrilles in th e ea rly nineteenth century made them enorm ously popular and led to a market demand for novelty As Ellis Rogers writes, they were set to th e popul ar tun es of the day, and socall ed Caledonian or Hibernian sets were danced t o Scotti sh or Iri sh tun es. By midcentury, however, genuine Scotti sh co ntent entered th e quadrill e. Qu ee n Vi ct o ri a - - - - - - - - helped set th e fashion for thin gs Scotti sh wh en she swath ed Balm oral Ca stl e in tartan and employed the dancing mast er Joseph Lowe t o teach reel s t o her chi dren and - in suitable privacy to herself. Lowe's diary for 30 September 185 2 includes thi s pa ssage
"Got to Ba/moral by twelve o'clock , was asked to the Drawing Room , met the whole party again, and had a regular practicing , everything the same as the day before I taught them the Reel of Eight. Her Majesty thought it great fun and entered quite into the spirit of it. " H.D. Will ock published his New Caledonian Quadrilles in Gl asgow c. 1860 . Hi s set of fi ve quadrilles is an interesting cultural fu sion, danced in ree l tim e alt ern atin g with strath spey. Th e dancers use st andard quadrille steps for th e reel secti ons and st ra th spey st eps fo r th e strath spey secti ons. Many of t he fi gures are standard quadrille ones, but two o f th e quadrill es contain reels of four. In th e fourth quadrille, each man in turn dances an 8-bar so lo, foreshadowing The Eightso me.
Birth of the Eightsome Th e modern Eightso me Reel seems to have been inve nted not by dancing masters, but by ari st ocrat s with tim e on th eir hands and a romantic vi ew of Scotl and's past. Ea rly allusions to th e dance associate it with th e balls held in conjuncti on with High land Games, themse lves deliberat e revivals of
an cient Hi ghland culture see n th ro ugh upper-cl ass Vi ctori an eyes A web hi st ory of th e Skye Games, founded in 1877 , describes th e Skye Gath ering ball s in Portree as "an essential part of th e Highland country house
itinerary , a couple of sleepless nights of reels and kilts and sparkling gowns, enjoyed by those who retired afterwards to the lodges and stately homes of Skye . . . " Th e best-kn own account of th e birth of Th e Eightsome appears in RSCDS Book 2, its probabl e source being th e Duke of Ath ol!, co inci dentall y th en President of th e Soci ety: It is said that this dan ce was worked up by the late Earl of Dunmore la member of the Murray family! and several friends from their recollections of "Round Reels". Th ey spent a week in the early 70s evolving this dan ce at the time of the Athol/ Gatherin g Ball. Later that season, or possibly the followin g yea r, it was introduced at the • Portree Ball, and at Perth . It caught on throughout the country, and is now dan ced in all parts of Scotland .
Dance programmes In 1885 Th e Eightsome appeared tw ice on th e dance programme of th e North ern Meetin g. Th enceforth , it beca me a fi xture on th e programmes o f all th e big Highland ball s. Th e 191 3 North ern Meetin g progra mm e included fi ve Eightsomes ! Th ese ball s were o ften attended by ho use partie s. One reason for th e dance's popul arity may have been that all members of a house party co uld dance in a set.
Development of the Eightsome Gi ve n th e associati on with th e Highl and Games and Gath erin gs pat ro ni zed by th e ari stocracy, a fu sion between th e ballroom quadrille and the traditi onal reel seems natural. Th e mary version s o f the dance fo und in publi shed sources betwee n approximately 1886 and 1910 show th at it did ind eed catch o n through o ut th e co untry, but th e di stin cti ve symmetri ca l stru cture of th e dance took some tim e to develop. Th e ea rli er ve rsions are mu ch close r to co nventio nal quadrill e stru ct ure. Th ey do not incorporate th e full 32 bars of Th e Reel of Eight, but th ey do repeat a secti on of thi s dan ce as a cho ru s fi gure, interspersed with settin g, turning, and reels of three . Th e earliest surviving ve rsion of the dance occurs in David Anderson's Ball-Room Guide, published in Dund ee in 1886. Th e ancestry of th e dance is clearly indi cated in its titl e, Scotch Reel Quadrille, or Reel of Eight Th e
