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I put together a display for the Reel Club Freshers' Ceilidh in 2014 (reused for IVFDF 2015). We had 10 volunteers, but two weren't very confident, so they joined in after the first dance - the tricky Argyll Square. There was a fancy transition to convert the square into a longwise set (1s swapped sides, 4L and the 2s moved one place clockwise around their triangle, 4M and the 3s stood still and the 5s led on). I had been inspired by Big Mac - the logical 5C extension of the 3C MacDonald of the Isles - to try out extensions of other dances.
Generally a dance should be extensible to 5C (7C, 9C… any 2n+1) if the dancing couple only interact with one corner at a time and the corners don't get shuffled around the set [c.f. 5C dances with half diagonal reels like Polharrow Burn - you need three half reels to get you back on your own side opposite your partner - there are some longer ones e.g. 7C Kelpie of Loch Coruisk]. City of Belfast works, and cities tend to expand to engulf the surrounding villages, so there was a fairly obvious jokey name.
GREATER BELFAST CONURBATION (S5x32) 5C set E McIntosh after L Mullholland
1- 8 1s & 3s dance 1/2 Fig of 8 round couples below. Leading couples going between the couples below, turn them 1.1/4 with the obvious hand, ending with leading couples in the middle of lines of 4 across.
9-16 1s+2s & 3s+4s dance RSh reels of 4 across. Leading couples pass LSh to face 1st corners, 2s & 4s ending one place up.
17-24 Leading couples set to 1st corner & 2nd corner and pull back RSh to end between corners, all set & leading couples cross RH
25-32 1s+4s & 3s+5s dance Espagnole:-
25-26 1s+3s cross (Ladies lead across RH passing between Men) with Ladies changing places RH
27-28 1s+3s cross back (Men lead across RH between Ladies) with Men changing places RH
29-32 3s turn RH as 1s turn LH to end 2 4 1 5 3
The final dance the medley actually started as the 3C (4C set) dance Highland Rambler, but I have danced it in 3C sets often enough to know that it's reasonably straightforward to adjust it. And making the leading couple get to the bottom each time makes it double progression, the same as the 5C dances with two leading couples. At the end of the IVFDF 2018 Scottish dance, Liz Ferguson-Jones called it when we had 10 couples left. As we had Scottish Measure playing, we had asked for the music to be played 10x rather than 8x, so everyone could have two goes leading the normal version, but then realised we could make it more fun, but…
MILES MORE COMPLICATED (R5x40) 5C set
E McIntosh after R Goldring
1- 8 1s & 3s dance in & cast a place, dance RH star with couple below.
9-16 Dance LH star with couple above, leading ladies followed by partners cast up round 2L/4L & dance down middle to: 3L between the 5s, line of 4L-3M-1L-4M, 1M between the 2s.
17-24 Lines dance down the middle and back (We did: line of 4 has the middles turning towards the ends to come back, lines of 4 have the leading couple turn towards opp sex end, all ends turn in)
25-32 Leading men followed by partners cast down round 2L/4L to 2nd/4th places on own side & turn RH, moving down a place: 24153
33-40 All circle round and back.
Of course this sort of adjustment can go the other way. 4C dances can be a bit annoying at balls if you don't have an exact multiple of eight people who want to dance. I am perfectly happy dancing with as many ghosts as necessary to complete the set (in fact this is quite fun as I can be as silly as I like without bothering anyone else). But at one RSCDS Birmingham Christmas dance, I was in an excess half set for Scott Meikle who decided we would try to dance with just the four of us. It *almost* worked, but it took me until about the end of the dance to work out what we could have done. It's a bit harder than the original 4C dance, so it is only really suitable to confident dancers, especially the part where the 1s barge their way up the middle at the end of the tandem reel, in order to undo the progression, ready for the half R&L.
SCTT MKL (R4x32) 2C set E McIntosh after A McLean
1-8 1s cross RH, cast, half Fig 8 up.
9-16 2s+1s RH across, LH back.
17-24 1s in tandem, lady leading, give RSh to 2L for a reel of three across, ending with 2s casting off and 1s dancing up the middle (NHJ) back to 1st pl.
25-32 1s+2s dance 1/2 R&L and turn partner RH 1.1/2.
For the third and fourth times through, replace the stars with LH then RH. Then the reel starts with 1M (leading the tandem) giving LSh to 2M.
What's smaller than an Inch mickery?
CENTIMICKERY (J3x32) 3C set E McIntosh after R Goldring
1- 8 1s+2s circle 4H round to left, 1s dance in & cast to 2nd place
9-16 1s dance RH star with couple on own right, change ends and do LH star with other couple
17-24 1s turn 1st corner RH and 2nd corner LH, ending back in 2nd pl
25-32 1s dance in & cast to 3rd place, 3s+1s circle 4H round to right. 2 3 1
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