Scottish Country Dance of the Day

The figure known as the Petronella comes from the late eighteenth-century Scottish country dance “Petronella,” first published in 1795 in Nathaniel Gow’s collection Repository of the Dance Music of Scotland. Like many dances of that period, it was intended for social dancing in drawing rooms rather than large public ballrooms. The choreography included a distinctive movement in which a dancer turned on the spot and travelled diagonally to a new position before setting. At the time this was simply part of one specific dance, not yet a general figure name.

During the early nineteenth century the movement proved especially practical and attractive. It allowed dancers to change places smoothly without long walks or complicated hand turns, and it fit neatly into the phrasing of Scottish reel music. Teachers and dancing masters began borrowing the movement and inserting it into other dances. By mid-century dancers recognized the step independently of the original choreography, and it gradually became known informally as a “Petronella turn,” named after the dance where it first appeared.

As Scottish country dancing spread throughout Britain and overseas in the Victorian era, the Petronella turn became part of the shared vocabulary of social dancing. It appeared in reels, quadrilles, and country dances because it moved people to corners and across formations efficiently while keeping the flowing character of the music. 

The original dance continued to be performed, but the movement itself had already become more important than its source.In the twentieth century the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society systematized terminology and technique. The Petronella turn was formally defined as a two-bar travelling turn, usually followed by setting in the new position. Once standardized, it became one of the core building blocks of modern Scottish country dance choreography, much like casting or reels of three.

From the mid-twentieth century onward choreographers began expanding the idea into multiple related figures: double Petronellas, corner chains, and progressive travelling sequences. Although these variations can look modern, they all descend directly from the single movement first printed in 1795. 

Today the Petronella is not just the name of a dance but one of the fundamental movement concepts in Scottish country dancing, demonstrating how a single late-Georgian step evolved into a lasting element of the dance language.

For more on the "tune" Petronella, click the music!