Flowers of Edinburgh
Flowers of Edinburgh is a Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by H. D. Wilcock in 1868 and published in Ball-Room Guide: A Manual of Dancing. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1924 and published in RSCDS Book 1. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. R32.
Wilcock writes (on page 73):
- First lady passes behind the second and third ladies, crosses between the third and fourth ladies to the gentleman's side, passes behind the second and third gentlemen to the first gentleman's place, and set. The first gentleman follows the lady, but leads up the centre.
- The first gentleman repeats the above, the lady following and set.
- Lead down the middle and up again.
- Pousette
The RSCDS's choreography is the same as Wilcock's except for the standard problem that the RSCDS poussette is progressive and no one else's is (and lead down the middle and up is progressive to Wilcock but not to the RSCDS).
RSCDS Book 1 claims this dances comes from The Ballroom, by J. P. Boulogne, published 1827, but I have not found that work. Wilcock is the earliest source I have found for this choreography.
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.
An online description of the dance may be found here.
| 1-4 | 1W cast followed by 1M chase halfway around set finish below 3s |
| 5-6 | 1W cast up while 1M dance up middle finishing in partner's place |
| 7-8 | 1s set |
| 9-12 | 1M cast followed by 1W chase halfway around set finish below 3s |
| 13-14 | 1M cast up while 1W dance up middle finishing in own place |
| 15-16 | 1s set |
| 17-24 | 1s lead down and back, ending with both hands joined (2s move in as well) |
| 25-32 | 1s+2s poussette (1W, 2M push) |
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.
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2019 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023 by George W. Williams V
My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.