Strathspey Poussette

Also known as: Diamond Poussette, Roundabout Poussette.

An online definition may be found here.

Bars: 8.

Strathspey Poussette This is a two couple figure which starts with everyone on the sidelines. It is non-progressive

W1 and M2 take a large step toward their partners to end inside them, facing partners on the right diagonal, while their partners take a small step to face them on the same diagonal (men above their partners).

Take both hands with partner and step out so that M1, W2 are again on their respective sidelines. Each couple pivots clockwise about M1 or W2 with their partners end up outside the sidelines.

Each couple moves diagonally, with M1, W2 passing back to back, to end straddling the centerline (2s above 1s).

Then two hand turn most of the way around, ending on the original diagonal, but with the 2nd couple above the 1s (men again above their partners).

Then stepping out so that W1,M2 are on the sidelines, pivoting clockwise slightly about W1,M2 until their partners are outside the sidelines.

Each couple moves diagonally, with W1,M2 passing back to back, to end straddling the centerline (1s above 2s).

Both couples two hand turn until each has their back to their proper walls, and release hands.

And fall back to original places.

History

In William Campbell's 14^th book (~1799) is a dance called Lord Nelson's Waltz. The instructions call for a "Poussette" to fill the last 16 bars (at waltz tempo). Both the Regency Dance site and Alan Winston say this should be a "Waltzing Turn Poussette". As yet I have found no contemporary description of this figure, and rely on Winston's description.

Around ~1820 something called a "Waltz Poussette" appeared. As far as I know no one ever bothered to define it, so we aren't sure what it entailed. However on page 9 of Lowe's Selection of Popular Country Dances (Edinburgh, 1853) in the description of Spanish Country Dance:

Then pousette, Waltzing round each other. (16 Bars)

This is the final figure of the dance, and needs to be progressive. It suggests to me that the two couples waltzed around each other several times (they had 16 bars) before ending in each others' places. Cooper's paper says that in dances imported from Spain the words "waltz" and "poussette" were used synonymously.

Almost all the other dances in Lowe's book use poussettes, but none of them is a waltz, none takes 16 bars, and none says the dancers should waltz around each other. Now if you have to remind people to waltz in a waltz then that suggests to me that normally the poussette took a different form. At least in Edinburgh, in ~1850

Looking back from the 1960s, the Fletts say:

The Pousette. This figure, which is performed by two couples starting from adjacent positions, is one of the principal figures used to achieve the progression down the set. It occurs only in dances in quick tempo and occupies eight bars of music.

In the form of the pousette used in Scotland within living memory, the two couples essentially just waltz round each other. The dancers take ordinary ballroom hold or some similar hold with their partners and use a simple waltz-type step, and the two couples move around each other in a counter-clockwise direction to exchange places, each couple at the same time rotating on its own axis in a clockwise direction, making two or more complete turns in the performance of the figure. The two men place their partners in position on the ladies' side, and fall back to their own side with one or two pas de Basque while their partners dance pas de Basque on the spot.

To my mind this is glossing over something important. How do you waltz to a reel or jig? Surely the footwork, at least, is going to be different? Or was "waltz" a broad enough a term to encompass a "partner swing", which can be done with a different traveling step than a waltz step?

In J.F. Wallace's The "Excelsior" Manual of Dancing, Glasgow, 1872, he describes "The British Grenadiers" (a reel). In it the poussette needs to be progressive. He describes it as Pousette, (using Galop step, making a half turn with each, (and breaks off without finishing his sentence or closing his parenthesis). In his publication from ~1900 he does close his parenthesis but we are no closer to knowing what "each" might modify. My guess is "step", and that this is a variant of a waltz poussette, turning halfway on each Gallop step — but remember this dance is a reel, not a waltz — indicating that the "waltz poussette" had extended to other types of music by 1872 (in Glasgow).

In Wallace's book, as in Lowe's, the poussettes used with waltz music are usually 16 bars, and the first one has the comment "still using the waltz step" as if this were unusual in a poussette.

Anderson (Dundee, 1897) also has to mention that a poussette in a dance with waltz music should be just waltzing.

Note that in 1964 the Fletts said It occurs only in dances in quick tempo. And a waltz is not a quick tempo dance. Does this mean that the "waltz poussette" wasn't used in waltzes in the Fletts' "living memory"? or that no one was doing country dances to waltz music by then? Except Anderson suggests that there were waltz country dances in 1897 which used waltz poussettes...

Anyway according to the Fletts, prior to the (R)SCDS, poussettes consisted of just waltzing around the other couple, suggesting that the (R)SCDS invented their poussette, and dances using it would, therefore, not be danced in a traditional way.

So, I'm pretty sure that the first use of this poussette was in the fourth book published by the (R)SCDS in 1927 in the dance The Haughs o' Cromdale.

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.

Strathspey Poussette

History

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

See Also