Hey

Also known as: Hay, Reel, Weave, Olivette.

Bars: depends on the number of people and complexity. 8 bars for a full straight hey with 3 or 4 dancers.


Hey for three	Hey for four	Circular hey

The hey, or reel is a weaving pattern where dancers pass first by one shoulder, and then by the other. Some heys are in straight(ish) lines, with dancers turn back when they reach the end of the line, some are in circles. Heys may be up and down, or across the set or on diagonals. Sometimes dancers take hands when they pass, often they don't.

Heys may be for any number of dancers but heys for three or four are most common in country dance. In square dances you may see circular heys for eight.

History

The OED (1982) says the phrase haye d'allemande was used in "15th c. Fr in Marot".

In his The Playford Assembly, Graham Christian's introduction quotes Hay the gy of thre in English from 1529. In Thoinot Arbeau's (Jehan Tabourot) Orchésographie, 1589, a book about French dancing, he describes a dance called "Branle de la Haye" (page 90 (his numbering is unexpected, he only numbers every other page, most would call this page 180) where he gives a very clear definition of a hey that is essentially the same as what we do today (it's a progressive hey, so not the most common form but recognizable).

In Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, 1594,

My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
Shall with their goat-feet dance the antic hay;

The OED (1982) says that the word "reel" in the sense of "to whirl around" first appeared in the 13 hundreds, but dates its use as a type of dance in 1585. (The OED also says that such use was chiefly Scottish). The OED does not have a separate entry for the figure called a "reel" (There are many dances which are called "reels" which do not, in fact, contain a "reel" — The Virginia Reel in the US, and Crummy Reel in Scotland are examples).

The Fletts suggest that the first known use of "reel" comes from "Douglas's Virgil, c. 1525:

And gan do dowbill brangillys and bambatis,
Dansys and rowndis traysings mony gatis
Athir throu other reland, on thar gys:

Rather a different spelling of the word, but here it seems to refer to a type of dance and not a figure (if I'm understanding the quote correctly, which I may not be).

They go on to say that a "threesom reel" is first mentioned in 1710 (again as a dance, but since modern threesome reels include the reel figure, this probably also referred to the figure too).

According to the Fletts, Thomas Wilson, of London, was the first to describe the movements of a Reel of Three (or four, or five). But he defines the figure by saying "they then hey", so he is using "reel" to mean the type of dance, not the figure. Contrariwise, Chivers in The Modern Dancing Master, London, 1822, defines hey as Is to reel.

The Register of Dances at Castle Menzies, 1749 uses the term "reel" both as a type of dance, and a figure.

The dancing masters and publishers of London from John Playford to Thomas Wilson to Cecil Sharp seem to have used the word "hey" almost exclusively when talking of country dances (Some, Kynaston for one, tended to spell it as "hay" though). But elsewhere the term "reel" can be found. Colin Hume describes the Dorset Four-Hand Reel on his website, which he says is "A traditional English dance, though it could be traditional Scottish if Dorset weren't at the other end of the British Isles!". In The Community Dances Manual, Book 3, Peter Kennedy collected "The Progressive Six Reel" which uses the word "reel" rather than "hey" for the figure.

Even in Scotland the term "hey" is occasionally found. In the Lowes' Ball-Conductor and Assembly Guide, (Edinburgh, ~1831) in the first Ecossoise:

...The first Lady hies, or makes a reel of three with the second and third Gentleman;...

John Sweeney and Colin Hume also discuss the origins of the hey.

In the early years of the US, the hey figure was part of country dancing; Saltator (Boston, 1802) even goes so far as to give a definition for it:

OLEVETTES, is to interchassè, as in the common reel of three, with three persons on one side of the choir, and employ as much time in doing it, as in right and left.

But, he's about the last US dancing master to publish a dance using it until about 1970 or so — except for the Scottish Reels — those dances which consist of alternately reeling and setting.

Ricky Holden's The Contra Dance Book, 1956, defines what a hey was, but he doesn't use it in any of his contra dances, only in two Scottish imports dance in Sicilian Circles.

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.

Hey

History

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

See Also