Photo: Andrew Trembley

The Highland Glide was the very last schottische given in M. B. Gilbert's Round Dancing (Portland, Maine, 1890). It reappeared in George Washington Lopp's La Danse (Paris, 1903) under the name La Highland Glide (Schottisch). The dance was created by Chicago dancing master C. A. Carr, who published sheet music advertising the dance, though the copy I have scans of does not include the dance instructions. Part of the cover of the sheet music may be seen at left; click to enlarge. It is dated 1890. Carr advertised himself as the creator of the "popular" Carlton (a polka sequence which appeared in Gilbert and Lopp) as well as "famous" Newports (plural), by which I suspect he means he composed music for dancing the Newport, rather than the dance itself. Gilbert and Lopp also credited him with the Ashland (another polka), Le Beau (a galop), and the America (a mazurka).

The Highland Glide follows the common "double" schottische pattern of four measures of slow steps followed by four of faster steps, the first part with minimal turning and the second turning continuously using the typical late-nineteenth century waltz-galop step (explained here). The measure count presents a minor reconstruction issue, since the steps are notated by Gilbert and Lopp in 4/4, but the sheet music is notated in 2/4. It is fairly obvious from the rhythm and tempo given that two measures of the sheet music are what Gilbert and Lopp considered a single measure...[reconstruction and thoughts on turning behind the cut]