This dance was composed for the original music “The Bride’s Favourite” by Steeleye Span on the album “Below the Salt”, CYL 34716 - “Jigs (2009 remaster)”.
This dance has been through a number of changes. The original version was for 2 couples (see
The Bride's Favourite (V1)). This was later changed to be a 3 couple dance first published in
Weird But Wonderful. The first 16 bars of the original 3 couple version were:
1-8: 1c+2c circle 4H round & back
9-16: RSh Reels of 3 on sides
17-24: 1c lead down for 3, up for 3 & cast off
25-32: 1c+3c RHA; 2c+1c LHA
In 2020 that was radically changed to the current version starting with 1st couple dancing figure of 8 round 2nd couple and then into mirror reels on the sides.
In the notes for the dance the deviser describes its origin as follows:
In 1976, during the holidays, I enjoyed having a morning bath and playing music loudly so that I could lie back and listen in a relaxed but concentrated way. On one such day I was listening to “Below the Salt” and suddenly realised that the track I was listening to was going in eight bar phrases. No-one else was home so I rushed through to the stereo dripping water everywhere, started that track again, puddled back to the bath, topped it up with a bit more hot water and lay back to check on the phrasing, count how many phrases in each tune and how many tunes made up the whole piece. After several more trips through to the stereo and top-ups I had it – 32 bar tunes and 6 of them. Such evocative music needed a dance to increase the pleasure, so here it is!