Parallel Reels
Also known as: Parallel Heys.
Bars: 8 bars for a full straight reel with 3 or 4 dancers.
Parallel reels are usually done with three people on each side of the set. The men's line and the women's line will do the same moves in parallel, the reels start by having the top two couples pass each other by the right (sometimes left) shoulders.
History
In Cheerily and Merrily, 1651, Playford may be calling for parallel heys, or he might mean mirror heys:
Men the S. Hey, while the we. do as much
In Adson's Saraband (from the same edition) he is very careful about spelling out exactly how the mirror hey is done. But here he is much briefer. My guess (and Cecil Sharp's) is that both men and women should do a right shoulder (single) right shoulder hey on the sides, but Charles Bolton thought differently (and uses mirror heys).
The (R)SCDS first uses parallel reels in Book 5 (1929) in Dunbarton Drums. However the term "parallel reels" isn't used until Book 19 (1957) for the dance Rakish Highlandman.
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
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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.