Act with Agility

So let's act with agility
While we still have facility
For we'll soon reach senility
And lose the ability

— When You Are Old and Gray — Tom Lehre

The name "Double triangles" was first used by Wilson in his 3rd edition of the Analysis of Country Dancing, London, 1811 to describe a figure where the 1s made loops around their 1st and 2nd corners (slightly different from a figure eight though). When the RSCDS first interpreted one of Wilson's dances with this figure, they replaced it with reels of three on the sides ((R)SCDS Book 10, 1935, There's Nae luck aboot the Hoose). But the next time they looked at it (Book 15, 1949 Lord Rosslyn's Fancy) they invented a completely new figure, and that figure is used in this dance.

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, turn single, circle, hands across, rights and lefts, double triangle, back to back (and probably others).

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=ActWithAgility

The dance is copyright © 2018 by Brooke Friendly/Chris Sackett. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2024 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.