Dance Jig on the Bridge 3264

Lacking an official source, here is an unofficial description.

4 x 40 bar Jig

Dance starts in “Glasgow Highlanders” set positions, i.e. 1st and 3rd couples side by side on the men’s side, 2nd and 4th couples side by side on the ladies side facing 1st and 3rd couples, ladies on their partner’s right.

1 -4 1L and 4L touch RH and cast to the left round their partner back to place

5 -8 Middle four dancers dance half rights and lefts with no polite turn, finishing facing the ends

9 - 16 All take two hands with the end dancers, and the two couples at the top and the two at the bottom dance a poussette ACROSS the dance, i.e. the top two couples change sides and the bottom two couples change sides. The poussette starts with the men dancing forwards, the ladies backwards. Finish in the following order: on the men’s side it should be 2L 3M 1L 4M, and on the ladies side 1M 4L 2M 3L.

17 - 24 RSh reels of 4 on the sides.

25 - 26 Middles give RH to ends and change places with a half turn 27 -28 Men give LH (1M to 3M and 2M to 4M) and turn once round to make a line up and down the middle of the set, 3M and 4M facing down, 1M and 2M facing up.

29 - 32 Men give LSh to dance half a reel of four, finishing beside their partner. All couples are now one place anticlockwise round the set.

33 - 40 Eight hands round and back.

Repeat from new positions.

Note: John Robertson provided this information, adding “I have no idea where this dance came from. I must have entered it into my card system in the 1970’s. It is a novel and fairly challenging, but enjoyable dance.”