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Enjoy this curated selection of theme-related dances for celebrations and holidays, or find a dance associated with a special calendar day, or EVEN your own birthday!
Two-Up Two-Down House, London, by Khan Bonshek
Jan 16
Poetry Friday
Two Up Two Down
Other Scottish Country Dances for this Day
Today's Musings, History & Folklore
THE LADIES MAN
"I’m a two-sex Scottish Dancer
And may seem rather dim
But I never spend one evening
As a full time her or him
I change my sex from dance to dance,
My corners always alter
It’s really not surprising I
Occasionally falter.
The old and simple dances
I can manage very nicely,
And I can learn a new dance
And do it most precisely
But when it comes to next week
I don’t know if I can,
For I learnt it as a woman
And dance it as a man.
And so, you men who have the luck
To stay always the same,
When female gentlemen go wrong
Be sparing with your blame.
I’ll add a postscript to this tale
One comfort I have got
When both the women change their sex
It doesn’t show a lot."
~ Pat Batt (RSCDS London)
It's Poetry Friday, Dancers! For all those with the ability to easily switch up sides from the ladies' to the men's to make up the numbers or just exercise your mental and spatial acuity, you deserve a blue ribbon and a golden ghillie! ✍️ 💛 💙 🤪
For those of us who have trouble switching from side to side, men to ladies, lark to raven, left to right, and topsy to turvy, we salute you with this humorous poem by the late Patt Batt, who managed to capture the uniqueness of being a country dancer in verse, courtesy of RSCDS London, along with a Derek Haynes' dance that it inspired, Two Up Two Down, which often refers to a typical house layout of two rooms upstairs, and two rooms downstairs. The devisor writes:
"For Pat Batt and all the other two-sex Scottish Dancers who have to dance on either side of the set. The dance was inspired by Pat’s poem “The Ladies Man”. And apart from all the setting and crossing, reeling (and writhing), the dance repeats with the set inverted! Sure to confound!
Ah, for simpler times ...
Two Up Two Down
Two-up two-down housing refers to a simple terraced house layout with two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, usually built without hallways and originally with an outside toilet and shared yard.
This form of housing emerged in the late 18th and 19th centuries, driven by rapid industrialisation. As factories expanded, towns needed large amounts of cheap, quickly built housing for workers. Developers constructed long rows of narrow brick terraces close to mills, mines, and docks, particularly in northern England, the Midlands, South Wales, and parts of Scotland.
During the Victorian era, two-up two-downs became the backbone of working-class life. They were economical in land use, easy to replicate, and relatively affordable. Early examples often lacked running water, sanitation, and ventilation, leading to overcrowding and public-health concerns. Later Victorian and Edwardian improvements introduced indoor plumbing, sculleries, and better light.
By the early 20th century, attitudes began to shift. Garden suburbs and council housing were promoted as healthier alternatives, and many two-up two-downs were demolished during slum clearances between the 1930s and 1960s. Others were modernised rather than replaced.
Today, surviving two-up two-down houses are often updated and highly valued, prized for their character, walkable locations, and historic connection to Britain’s industrial past. What began as utilitarian workers’ housing has become an enduring symbol of everyday British domestic history.
For more on what it was like to live in one of these houses, click the vintage photograph from 1979 of the backs a row of a Two up Two Down neighborhood!
Click the dance cribs or description below to link to a printable version of the dance!
