Dance The Chapman 1154
Reel · 32 bars · 3 couples · Longwise - 4 (Progression: 213)
- Devised by
- Unknown
- Intensity
- 888 888 888 844 = 91% (1 turn), 69% (whole dance)
- Formations
-
- Hands round - 6 - with setting (HR;6P;SET;)
- Promenade 3 couples (PROM;3C;)
- Hands across - 4 (HX;4P;)
- Note: This list may be incomplete and/or incorrect.
- Steps
-
- Pas-de-Basque, Skip-Change, Slip-Step
- Published in
-
- Book 25 [2]
- Scottish Country Dances Books 25 to 30 (Combined A5 edition) [2]
- Pocket: Books 25,26,27 [2]
- Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 8 [120] (diagram only)
- Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 7 [109] (diagram only)
- Scottish Country Dances in Diagrams. Ed. 6 [106] (diagram only)
- Recommended Music
- Extra Info
The Chapman
In isolated Highland crofts or hill farms in the south, the arrival of the chapman with his heavily laden pony was an event of major importance. His coming was often the first contact the rural Scots had had with the outside world in many months. With the chapman, the pedlar, the cadger, came not only merchandise that could not be produced at home, the luxuries of a rather elementary life, but, of perhaps equal value, news from beyond the glen.
Even in the towns, shops were few and the inhabitants relied upon the chapman for the delivery of foodstuffs as well as kitchen and household utensils.
It is not surprising, then, that a dance should be called “The Chapman” for these early commercial travellers were generally held in affection by the country people as the following poem by Robert Burns indicates.
As Tam the chapman on a day
Wi’ Death foregather’d by the way,
Weel pleas’d he greets a wight so famous,
And Death was nae less pleas’d wi’ Thomas,
Wha cheerfully lays down his pack,
And there blaws up a hearty crack:
His social, friendly, honest heart
Sae tickled Death, they could na part;
Sae, after viewing knives and garters,
Death taks him hame to gie him quarters.
In music, another pedlar was immortalised by Nathaniel Gow whose reel “John Cheap the Chapman” was included in *Part Second of the Complete Repository of Original Scots Tunes, Strathspeys, Jigs and Dances …” published by Niel Gow and Sons (1802).
The Chapman 3/4L · R32
- 1–
- All set | Circle6 L
- 9–
- All set, Circle6 R, finishing for
- 17–
- 1c+2c+3c promenade, at the end 1c cast and 2c dance up (2,1,3)
- 25–
- 1c+3c RHA ; 2c+1c LHA
The Chapman 3/4L · R32
- 1-8
- 1s+2s+3s set & circle 6H round to left
- 9-16
- 1s+2s+3s set & circle 6H round to right
- 17-24
- 1s+2s+3s dance Promenade, 1s casting to 2nd place
- 25-32
- 1s+3s dance RH across, 2s+1s dance LH across
