Flowers of Edinburgh

The Flowers of Edinburgh ~ A. Thompson, Duple The Flowers of Edinburgh ~ A. Thompson Flowers of Edinburgh ~ Rebbeck The Flowers of Edinburgh ~ Sharp Flowers of Edinburgh

Flowers of Edinburgh 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 R8×32 3C/4C, a proper Triple Minor dance. R32.

The earliest source I can find is Wilcock, 1868, who writes (on page 73):

  1. 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.
  2. The first gentleman repeats the above, the lady following and set.
  3. Lead down the middle and up again.
  4. 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).

Also in Kate Hughes's manuscript, Dancing Book, Ireland, 1867.

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.

1-41W cast followed by 1M chase halfway around set finish below 3s
5-61W cast up while 1M dance up middle finishing in partner's place
7-81s set
9-121M cast followed by 1W chase halfway around set finish below 3s
13-141M cast up while 1W dance up middle finishing in own place
15-161s set
17-241s lead down and back, ending with both hands joined (2s move in as well)
25-321s+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.

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=FlowersOfEdinburgh

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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 © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License 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.