The Nut
The Nut is a Scottish Country Dance. It was published by J. P. Boulogne in 1827 in The Ball-Room, or the Juvenile Pupil's Assistant; Containing the Most Fashionable Quadrilles, with Les Lanciers of Sixteen, As Danced in the Public & Private Assemblies in Paris, Glasgow. It was interpreted by RSCDS in 1924 and published in RSCDS Book 1. It is J8×24 2C/4C, a proper Duple Minor dance. J24.
The Lowes write:
The first Gentleman turns the second Lady by the right hand, which he retains, and gives his left to the second Gentleman; the first Lady passes through below the Gentlemen's arms, and her partner following, they go down the middle, up again, and pousette.
Lady 1's path seems somewhat different in the Lowes' version than in the RSCDS's.
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 | M1+L2 right hand turn |
| 5-8 | M1 retains L2's hand, joins with M2, balance in line, as L1 dances right shoulder around M1 (under his joined hands) |
| 9-16 | 1s lead down, turn, come back, ending in middle, 2s moving in behind them |
| 17-24 | Poussette |
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=TheNut
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 © 2022 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 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.