The Machine without Horses
The Machine without Horses is a Scottish Country Dance. It was devised by John Rutherford in 1772 and published in Twelve Selected Country Dances for the Year 1772. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1938 and published in RSCDS Book 12. It is a proper Triple Minor dance. J32
I suspect there is a misprint in the Scottish Country Dancing Dictionary which credits this dance to David Rutherford. I have found it published by John Rutherford in 1772. David Rutherford published the "Compleat collections" of the 1750s, but I'd guess his son took over by 1772.
The 1st. Cu. cast off one Cu. right hands across with the 3d. Cu cast up and left hands across with the 2d. Cu. lead down between the 3d. Cu. the 2d. Cu. follows cast up into your own places cross over one Cu. right & left
The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance is 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.
The dance contains the following figures: set, cast, lead, hands across, rights and lefts (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.
The dance itself is out of copyright, and is in the public domain. The interpretation is copyright © 1938 by RSCDS. 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 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.