Lead out Bottom and Top
Bars: 8.
The active couple leads out through the bottom couple, casts back through the middle, leads out through the top couple and casts back to the middle.
Occasionally the figure is done in the other order (lead out through the top first, and then the bottom).
History
The earliest example of this figure I can find is Woodycock (Playford, 1651).
He doesn't name the figure, only describing it: The 2. cu. lead up between the first, cast off and come to your places lead down between the last cu. and as much
Johnson is the first I've found to give the figure a name: "Lead out Bottom and Top" (and once lead out top and bottom).
Nicholas Dukes also names it in his list of figures at about the same time: The middle man & wo: leads thro' the bottom, & Casts up, & lead thro' the top and Cast of.
Wilson also describes it in 1808, through he calles it simply: Through Bottom and Top.
I know of two dances that juxtapose "lead out bottom and top" with Lead out sides which leads me to believe they are similar figures, just rotated 90° from one another: Linnen Hall by Thompson, 1779, and Spithead Fleet, Johnson, 1752.
Some dances which (probably) use this figure
- Dances for which I have animations
- Dances in (R)SCDS Books
Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.
See Also
This website is copyright © 2021-2026 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.