This site is not primarily about social dances. However, several of the manuscript collection and other digital resources cover social dance as well as step and clog dance and accordingly we have included such dances as are known to have been record from oral tradition in our coverage. To, hopefully, facilitate locating the material sought for, we have divided the dances into sections based on geography (e.g. collected in Scotland) and content. As regards the latter we have grouped dances together which have, as part of their choreography, a stepping phase or phases. A typical example known to many would be the Four Hand Reel collected in Dorset, England.
If you know the name of the dance you are searching for you can of course simply type it into the search box at the top right hand corner of the page.
Social Dances Collected in England
Explore dances collected from oral tradition in England. In many cases notations are available, sometimes with variations from different sources.
Social Dances Collected in England with Stepping
Find out aboth the English social dances collected from oral tradition which involve a phase or phases of stepping. The type of stepping involved can provide interesting potential insights into the local form of step dance in areas where it can no longer be found
Social Dances Collected in Scotland
Numerous collections of Scottish dances have been published but here we restrict ourselves to some which can be said to be vernacular in that they are known in oral tradition.
Social Dances with Stepping Collected in Scotland
This type of dance is perhaps best known from Scotland where forms are still danced today. The dances are usually in the form of a true reel (which may or may not be performed to a musical reel) where stepping alternates with one or more figures. Dances of this type have been collected not only from the mainland but also from the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland.