Question

Ladies of Dunse Book 26. This is a dance I have enjoyed for many years, including dancing it at the Duns May weekend most years since the mid-eighties.

Throughout this time I have understood that the rights-and-lefts (bars 25-32), whilst in a slightly modified form in the last two bars, does include a polite turn for the first man and third lady. As I understand it, on bars 31-32, the first man moves from third man's place towards third lady's place then into the middle back-to-back with his partner, pulling back his left shoulder as he does so, to be ready to set to the third lady.  A variation (I'm tempted to say "aberration") seems to have developed, eliminating the polite turn. I have checked my copies of Book 26 and the manual but can find nothing in either that appears to support this - the only special note I can find in the manual refers to the need to release hands early - to enable the first man to correctly position himself for setting to his first corner - there is not even a note to encourage first lady to dance strongly to give her partner space in which to position himself. It appears to me that trying to dance these bars without the polite turn keeps the first man on the men's side of the dance with the result that there is a conflict between the paths of  the first couple as each tries to get across the middle of the set into place to set to first corner.

Please can you advise what is the current official RSCDS thinking on this matter?

Answer

The notes in the Manual for this dance state:

“Bars 31–32

As 1st man is giving a left hand to 3rd man he must quickly release hands and dance over

to face his first corner. Similarly, 1st woman must dance over to face her first corner on

the last two steps, briefly touching left hands with 3rd woman.”

The way this is usually interpreted is that, while 3^rd woman does include a polite turn, 1^st man does not do a polite turn, but releases 3^rd man’s left hand and dances into the centre of the set, pulling back by the right, to face 3^rd woman .