The Dance

Printer friendly dance instructions.

For three dancers, with hats.

The hats should be in a straight line on the ground with enough space between them for the dancers to be able to dance around their hats easily.

Dancer 1 has the other two dancers to his left.

Dancers start in a line, parallel to the line of the hats. Distance from the hat should be close enough that you can just reach your outstretched hand directly over your hat.

Chorus - All Around My Hat (A)

Count	Moves
1–4	Hold the stick in the middle with your right hand and position it vertically directly above the hat. Keeping the stick in that position, dance clockwise ¾ around the hat. Dancers should end up in line with the hats.
	On the off-beat between four and five, bring the right arm across, slap the stick smartly into the palm of the left hand, and turn in 180 degrees to face back the way you came.
5–8	Hold stick vertically above your hat. Dance ¾ anti-clockwise around hat. Dancers should end up in a line parallel to the line of hats.
	On the off-beat between eight and nine, bring the left arm across, slap the stick smartly into the palm of the right hand and turn in to face back the way you came.
9–12	Hold stick vertically above your hat. Dance ¾ clockwise around hat, to end up with all dancers in line with the hats.
	On the off-beat between 12 and 13, bring the right arm across and slap the stick smartly into the palm of the left hand. Turn back to face the way you came.
13–16	Hold stick vertically above your hat. Dance ¾ anti-clockwise around hat. Dancers should end up in a line parallel to the line of hats, where they were at the start of the chorus.
	On the last beat of the bar, bring the left arm across and slap the stick smartly into the palm of the right hand. This time, the stick should not be held in the middle, but at the bottom and should rest on the shoulder.

Do-si-hat (B)

Dancers in this figure should stand still when not involved.

Count	Moves
1–4	Dancer 1 does a do-si-do with his hat. Two steps forward passing hat right shoulder, and two back passing left into place.
5–8	Dancer 2 does a do-si-do with his hat.
9–12	Dancer 3 does a do-si-do with his hat.
13–16	All dancers do-si-do their hats.

Chorus - Hat (A)

See chorus

(Deer) Stalker (B)

Sticks resting on right shoulders. Dancers not involved in the figure stand still.

Count	Moves
1–8	The dancer in the middle (number 2) dances round the outside of the hat to his right (number 1’s hat) and passes behind that hat and his own hat before returning to his own place.
	Once the middle dancer has passed the outer hat, the dancer who owns that hat (number 1) will follow behind him, but only dance around his own hat.
	The two dancers should time it so that they return to their places at the same time, each finishing with a right hand turn, ending up facing their own hat.
9–16	Exactly the same as above, but the middle dancer goes round the outside of the hat to his left (number 3’s) and is followed by the dancer to his left (number 3). This time each dancer finishes with a left hand turn to face their hat.

Chorus - Hat (A)

See chorus

Crown (B)

Hold sticks in the middle in the right hand.

Count	Moves
1–4	Sticks on shoulder, dancers 1 and 3 dance round the outside of their hats and come towards the centre hat.
	On the last beat, dancer 2 takes a step forward, so that the dancers form an equilateral triangle around the centre hat.
5–8	Sticks positioned directly over the hat, dancers do a right hand star.
9–12	Turn in and do a left hand star. Sticks should still be in the right hand, and be held out at arm’s length. Left fists in above the hat.
13–16	Dancers 1 and 3 dance around the outside of their own hats to return to place.
	Dancer 2 takes one step back to place.

Chorus - Hat (A)

See chorus

Skeepskin Hey (BA)

Count	Moves
1–24	Sticks resting on right shoulders. Dancer number 1 at the top end of the line goes half way round his own hat to lead the dancers down the other side of the line of hats. As he goes around the outside of the hat at the far end of the line (number 3’s) he leads the dancers into a sheepskin hey around the hats.
25–30	At the end of the hey when he goes around number 3’s hat for the last time, he will lead them out on the usual side of the hats and they’ll line up in their starting positions, but facing forward (not towards their hats).
31–32	Bend down and pick up your own hat and place it on your head.

Dance Off (B)

Count	Moves
1–16	Follow dancer number 1 wherever he goes – generally leading off into the audience.